Just Cruising
by TiffanyPhantom
Summary: Danny, Jake Long and June are invited to spend a whole week of fun with TiffanyPhantom and her friends on a cruise ship. Sure, you can be added into this story if you want to as well. Co-written with GothicChevy. Just R&R!
1. Chapter 1

"ASDFGHJKLPOIUYTREWQ?!"

"No, Larry, we're not there yet, so STOP ASKING!"

Larry slumped down in his seat, obviously bored. Barry just rolled his eyes and kept on staring outside the window, looking at the scenery that the bus happened to pass by. It was the Chinese New Year and everyone in the city of Bob was bustling all over the place, getting together with their family and friends, so were our heroes in this story.

Everyone in this bus had already spent most of their lives with their families, and everyone had the permission to go along on this trip. Besides, it was specially planned because someone in the gang needed her friends around pretty badly.

"Tif, are you ok?"

Tiffany turned around to see Danny and June peeking nervously at her from the seat in front. She sighed as she stopped staring at the window and into the concerned eyes of her two friends.

"Yeah, I'm fine…why?" Tiffany asked weakly. That was far from the truth. Tiffany was not fine at all. The whole reason she agreed to come on this trip was to get away from that monster of a father for at least a week. She hardly believed that creep was even related to her.

"Um…we're your friends, you know you can always talk to us, right?" June told her. Tiffany nodded, although that was the opposite of what she thought. Nobody on Earth could relate to what she was going through right now. What kid in their right mind would want their parents to divorce as badly as she did?

Danny and June gave up and turned around, sitting back down on their seats. Today was weird for them, Tiffany was the most bubbly, hyperactive person that they had ever met and today she looked like something the guy with rabies ate, spit out, and then stepped on. The strangest thing was that she actually denied Jake to sit next to her.

_Jake!_

Not Jake Long, American dragon. Jake, as in her angel of light, as in the guy who had known her since anybody else in the bus did. Jake had been with her through thin and thick and she always wanted him to be by her side in any circumstances. She always wanted to stand next to him and she always wanted him to sit next to her.

Not this time.

Jake looked out the window of the bus as well, obviously thinking of the same thing that Tiffany was daydreaming about. Jake Long was the one sitting next to him, talking unstoppably.

"And then I did the most impossible thing ever possible on the skateboard! That was awesome! Even Spud and Trixie were stupefied…so...um, are you even listening?" Jake Long looked at his friend. The young angel was just slumped against the window. He often kept turning around just to check on his friend. She was two seats behind them, Jake could hardly see her face, but he knew what she was feeling like – crud.

"Dude, are they ok?" Jake Long asked Danny and June. They just shrugged. Neither of them knew what was going on.

"It's just family issues and the domino effect." Sky explained. "When one of Tiffany's unstable family members throws a fit, it affects her, and when she's affected, it affects Jake. It's very simple."

"AAH! LOGIC! IT BURNS!" Cubby exclaimed, rubbing his furry temples, and then stopping suddenly. "Hey, anyone got bamboo juice?" Everyone just rolled their eyes at Cubby.

"Seriously, why did we have to bring him along?" Barry asked, turning around and looking directly at Hui Hua and Dixon, two of Tiffany and Jake's friends from IPIS, Inversely Proportional International School.

"Because he's awesome." Dixon said, raising an eyebrow.

"And because he's Dixon's imaginary friend and he won't leave him alone." Hui Hua smirked. Dixon just scoffed.

"It's not my fault!" He exclaimed.

"Guys, we all agree that whatever happens on this trip, it's Dixon's fault." June smiled.

"Gotcha." Danny grinned.

"HEY!" Dixon shouted.

Soon everyone on the bus was laughing happily, except of course, for Tiffany, who was still looking out the window. Jake stopped laughing and looked at her worriedly.

_Tif, cheer up. Laughing's not as fun without you. _Jake sent a thought wave to Tiffany. As her angel of light, that gave both of them the power of sending messages to each other using their minds. Tiffany looked up and moved over to a position where she could see her friend. She gave him a sad smile.

_Everyone's having so much fun, it really wouldn't matter if I didn't. _Tiffany thought back.

_Yes it would, Tif! Look, could you please be selfish for a second and think about yourself? Be happy! _Jake sent back another thought wave. Tiffany sighed, it wasn't that easy to be happy. Her father was an idiot, her brother was a jerk and her mother was out of the country, so she didn't know about anything that was happening to her family life.

"Jake, it's not so easy to forget about a problem as big as this one, so please stop pretending like it is!" Tiffany shouted, but then snapped back into reality when she realized that everyone in the bus was staring at her.

"Tif, come on, please forget about that, just for a while?" Danny told her.

"When you're not happy, everything here is completely messed up, girl." Jake Long told her.

"A cheerful heart is a good medicine, remember your window?" Hui Hua asked, Dixon just looked at her in confusion, having no idea what everyone was talking about.

"ASDFGHJWERTYUIKXCVB!!"

"Yeah, it's true. When you're not happy, nobody else really is." June told her.

"Except for me." Barry raised his skinny hand.

"Yeah well, that's because you're always such a grouch." Sky rolled her eyes.

"I LIKE PIE!" Cubby exclaimed randomly.

_See, it does matter that you have fun. _Jake smirked.

"Alright, I'll be better guys, trust me." She smiled.

"You better." Dixon laughed, everyone in the bus smiled and went back to doing…what the heck?

Suddenly, the bus stopped and everyone jumped in surprise. They all looked out the windows in surprise to see the ship that they were all going to board. A huge ship with room for almost a thousand passengers, they could almost spot a stage on top of the whole ship, a pool, a tennis court and even a hair salon.

"I'm definitely gonna be better." Tiffany's eyes widened in excitement.

"That's good to know." June and Danny silently said to each other.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wow…we're actually going to be on that?!" Danny exclaimed.

Everyone was standing in front of the ship in awe. Crowds of people were gathered in front of the ship, waiting to board it. Meanwhile, Larry and Barry tried their best to load all the luggage bags off the bus, which was hard because both of them were stick figures. Hui Hua tried to help out, unfortunately almost being crushed by one of the luggage bags.

Sky, being her angel of light, rolled her eyes at how naive her friend was and helped unload the luggage. Dixon tried his best to keep his incredibly hyperactive imaginary friend under control.

"CUBBY, COULD YOU PLEASE STAND STILL FOR AT LEAST ONE SECOND?!" Dixon exclaimed, Cubby just blurted out some random gibberish. "I know, you had too much bamboo juice, but could you at least try to be like all the other red pandas and HOLD STILL?!"

As June and Jake long tried to help Dixon get cubby under control. Tiffany sadly sat down on one of the luggage bags and looked into the distance. She promised her friends that she would have fun along with them, but it really wasn't easy to ignore the situation she had just gone through. Her father had called her a 'stupid, selfish brat who didn't care about her family, but only about herself'.

That wasn't true. Tiffany had been taking care of her family most of her life. She made sure that her mum ran her company with few problems. She made sure that her younger brother had passed most of his tests and avoided grounding. Believe it or not, the whole family despised her father and wanted him out of the house. She was the one who convinced them to let him stay and dispose of the divorce papers.

The worst thing was that her father knew that, and still had the heart to say those cruel sentences about her.

Tiffany hid the buckets of tears that were about to stream down her face. Danny, finally making sure that Cubby had calmed down enough for June and Jake Long to catch him, turned over to Tiffany. She looked miserable. For the whole period that Danny had known her, she was always hyperactive, random and unnaturally happy. As one of Tiffany's best friends and most beloved cartoon characters, seeing her like this was heartbreaking.

Danny wasn't the first to reach her side, actually, Jake was. His cool blue eyes were full of worry now, and he couldn't seem to have fun without her until his friend was ok.

"Hey." He greeted as he floated beside her.

"Hi." She muttered softly.

"Forget about it, you know for a fact that whatever your dad said was wrong." Jake told her. "You aren't selfish, you aren't a brat. You're an awesome girl."

"He's right. That guy is an idiot for saying those things." Danny told him.

"Danny, chill. That 'idiot' is still her father." Jake hissed.

"No, Danny's right. He's an idiot. And for all I care, my parents could just sign those stupid divorce papers. I want him out of my life forever, and I'm going to make sure that he'll be gone once I get home." Tiffany told Danny and Jake, who just looked at her in shock. Apparently this 14 year old had no clue how divorce could affect people.

"Tif, you know that divorce…" Jake started, before he heard a horn honk behind him. Everyone turned around to see a black 1995 Chevy Monte Carlo Z34 pull up behind them. A dark figure then emerged out of the car. Everyone looked at the man in surprise and confusion. The man in question had messy dirty blonde hair and piercing light blue eyes. He had a small silver hoop earring in his left ear, a gold chained necklace with a small gold cross on it and a home-made looking necklace on black thread that had a pewter skull on it. He wore a black T-shirt with a light blue dragon on the front that said "Fear me" in bold light blue Gothic letters under the dragon, black designer jeans with light blue stitching, a light blue hoodie tied around his waist with the sleeves, and black combat boots. All in all, he looked like a 15 year old Goth and seemed too young to drive. (A/N here's GothicChevy)

"Hey, does anybody know where..." The guy said, and then he took one look at the gang's surprised faces. "Oh great, another group of kids. I actually thought that you were tour guides...oh well," sarcasm just dripping off his voice.

"Wait, wait, wait a second...aren't you about our age as well?" Danny asked the guy.

"Dude, seriously, you're totally 15." Jake told the guy.

"I'm not 15! You know how annoying it is, especially when someone pulls you out of your own car and asks you for your I.D. I'm 18! Jeez..." The stranger ranted.

"So he says..."

"What was that?" June asked. Everyone looked around for the source of the voice. The man shot the car a dirty look that, if looks could kill, would've reduced the black coupe to scrap metal.

"What was what?"

"That! See, there it is again!" Tiffany's eyes shot open, she then turned to the guy. "There was a voice, didn't you hear it?"

"Well, duh? I made it?"

Tiffany looked at the man, who just gave her a mysterious smirk. She then turned to the car, which just stood there, not moving at all.

"It's just my car, ignore it." The man told her.

"Um...your car?" Hui Hua asked the man.

"Yeah, his car."

Tiffany then turned her head towards the car. She could've sworn that she heard that voice. And it was coming from that Chevy.

"Little girl, are you going to stare at my car all day?" The guy asked.

"Oh, um...sorry...Mr..." Tiffany muttered nervously.

"Tom, just call me Tom." The man smiled. Suddenly, his car gave out a loud engine rev. "Oh right, and this is my Chevy, Shadow."

"He names his cars..." Sky turned to Cubby.

"And you guys think that I'm weird?" Cubby asked.

Suddenly, the crowds all started to board the ship. Larry and Barry tried their best to lug the bags over to the group, both of them sadly failed. Sky and Jake then took a few luggage bags each and carried them over to everybody else.

"Dude, our cruise has officially begun. Now let's…well, cruise." Jake Long told everyone else, rushing up to the crowd and trying to board the ship along with the rest of the crowd.

"I BET THERE'S BAMBOO JUICE ON THAT SHIP! WHEE, BAMBOOS!" Cubby exclaimed, rushing after Jake.

"SDFGJKLLWOPOIR!" Larry blabbered and ran after Cubby, with Barry trailing behind him.

"You heard them, let's go have fun." Danny said. June then walked off with him towards the crowds.

"You know what, I have a shortcut. Hop in guys." Tom told Hui Hua, Dixon, Jake and Tiffany.

"Wait, are you sure we want to enter a 'talking car' with a total stranger?" Hui Hua asked, standing in the way of all her friends. Suddenly, the car let out a large honk and squeezed past the front seat into the back seat of Tom's Chevy. It was cramped in the 2 door muscle car.

"Spare me. If I wanted to hurt you, it would've been done already and you'd be six feet under," Tom muttered in a tone that said mess-with-me-and-you'll-pay with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"This is so cool!" Dixon exclaimed, reaching out to touch a button. Tom slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch anything." He warned as the Chevy made its way through the crowds, revving its powerful V6 engine at anyone stupid enough not to move, and onto the ship before the rest of the gang did.

"Trust me. You wouldn't want to touch that button anyway." The voice came again. Everyone looked around, shrugged, and went back to looking out of the tinted windows of the car. Everyone got out and looked around the ship.

"Tif, don't worry, you'll have fun. I'll make sure you do." Jake told his friend.

"Sure…I'll be ok." Tiffany said weakly.

Meanwhile, Danny and June had watched the Chevy already reach the top of the ship. They were still stuck in the crowd. June smirked.

"See? I told you it'd be faster to fly." She teased.

Danny just rolled his eyes. "So do you think it was a good idea for them to go with that guy? He gave me a creepy vibe. Ya-know, like he's hiding something?"

"Danny Fenton, you think too much." June told her friend. "Now come on, Cubby's probably going to go nuts again and without us around, Dixon's gonna lose control."

Danny laughed softly as they still made their way to the ship. But for the record – Danny didn't know how right he was about Tom.


	3. Chapter 3

"Danny, you sure you're ok?"

"Sam, stop worrying about me, alright? I'm having loads of fun."

Danny threw his phone aside, just as a bunch of water landed on his head. He turned around to see a laughing Cubby, running around the pool and scaring all the other passengers. Sam, still on the mobile phone, could hear the red panda's frantic screaming.

"Was that Cubby again?"

"Naturally." Danny rolled his eyes. "Trust me, I'll be ok. You and Tucker can handle the ghosts back there in Amity Park, right?"

"Of course, we learnt from the best." Sam grinned. "Plus – I'm really gonna miss you, so hurry back, ok?"

"Calm down, Sam. It's not like another asteroid's gonna come streaming towards earth, right?" Danny joked.

"It's possible." Sam replied, before she hung up. Danny just smiled as he put the phone down and ran towards the pool, getting a bunch of water and getting ready to throw it all on Cubby. That plan would've worked…

…if only he didn't throw it on a total stranger.

"What is your problem!?" The girl turned around to face Danny, her long black hair soaked with water.

"Um, sorry…I didn't mean to get you…I just meant to get…" Danny glared at Cubby. The kid turned to see the red panda making faces at the fuming halfa. She smirked as she suddenly waved her hands and water from the pool came to life and started shooting at Cubby.

"AAH! THE WATER, IT BURNS!" He shouted as he ran frantic all around the pool, and then finally jumping into it for some strange reason that nobody would ever understand.

"How…did you do that?" Danny asked the girl in amazement.

"I'm an Aquatian." The girl said, Danny blinked in confusion. "I can control water."

"So don't you mean waterbender?" Danny asked.

"I didn't want to rip Avatar off." The girl smirked.

"Well…thanks for the save, that twerp has been a pain in my neck all day." Danny grinned. The teenager smiled in return.

"No problem, hey, my name's Ali." The girl smiled.

"I'm Danny, and those are my...friends?" Danny replied, and then his smile dropped as he looked at what his friends were doing.

"DANNY! MAKE HIM STOP! MAKE HIM STOP!" Dixon called out from another end of the pool, where Cubby was splashing him madly with water. June, Hui Hua and Sky tried their best to drag Cubby away, but each got a splash in their faces. Larry joined in the splashing parade while Barry resulted to hitting his head against the railing. Danny just smirked as Alison neared the gang with water rising out of the pool.

Meanwhile, Jake and Tiffany were on the deck, the most deserted place of the ship as everybody had been busy with the facilities. Both of them were silent, but they just kept walking along the deck.

"Still thinking about it?" Jake asked Tiffany, she just stayed silent. Jake sighed.

"You know…I think that I might know what you feel." Jake told her. She looked up briefly, then back into the distance.

"Angels of light have long histories. They die in some tragic incident, they go up to heaven and then they're told that it's not their time yet." Jake explained. "Then they're sent down to the land of Sorinity to be trained to be an angel of light. Then after that they're sent down to a person on Earth born on the exact same moment as they are."

"I know, I know." Tiffany said. "In your case, you died in a car accident and you were paired up with me. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Going through all that was tough." Jake told her. "So there's no actual difference between our situations. So don't feel like you're alone, I know exactly what you're going through. That's why I'm your best friend, remember?"

"Yeah…hey, where's Tom, I haven't seen him all day…" Tiffany began.

"He's probably talking to his Chevy…um…I mean 'Shadow'." Jake mocked. Both of them burst out laughing. Meanwhile, Tom was in the cargo pit, sitting next to his black Chevy.

"I know, I should be up there having fun. But I mean…I hardly know those kids." Tom began, turning to Shadow. "Plus – they think I'm a lunatic."

"Well, I think you're a lunatic too."

"Thanks, that was very reassuring." Tom told him. "Sorry for getting you stuck in the cargo pit. I did talk to the captain…but I stopped when he threatened to throw me overboard."

"Wait a second; weren't you the one who threatened to throw him overboard?"

"Details, details." Tom smirked. "Either way, cars don't get many rights."

"Tell me about it. Hey, you better go. By the light that's coming into the cargo pit, I can tell that it's getting dark."

"Alright, but you're gonna be ok in here, right?" Tom turned to Shadow.

"I'm a car, I'll be fine. If anyone wants to mess with me, I'll run 'em over."

"That's a good Chevy." Tom smiled as he made his way out of the cargo pit. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Whatever."

Tom smirked as he made his way out of the cargo pit and up to the rooms. Suddenly, he saw three figures walking down the hallway. He was about to turn and walk the other direction, but he didn't want to act like a chicken. I mean, he was 18.

"So your name's Ali and you're an Aquatian? That's cool! You're the first one I've met." Tiffany smiled.

"She's the only one you've met." Danny laughed, but then his smile faded as Tom passed by. He glared at the kids and headed to one of the rooms.

"That guy gives me the creeps." Danny turned around to make sure that Tom wasn't looking at them anymore.

"I don't know, he's probably a nice guy, he's just not too comfortable with us." Tiffany told him.

"Wait, wait, wait…who's he?" Ali asked, confused.

"He's Tom, he's this guy that we met earlier on. I think he's pretty nice." Tiffany said.

"And disturbing." Danny continued, and he received a hit on the shoulder from Tiffany. "OW! Hey, call it a halfa's intuition or something, but there's something really freaky about him. I say we investigate."

"Wait, investigate? Guys, he must be a harmless, quiet person." Ali told them.

"He talks to his car." Danny told Ali.

"He must be a harmless, quiet, creepy person." Ali explained.

"That's it. I say we investigate, starting with his car. Come on." Danny led the group away from the rooms and down to the cargo pit. Meanwhile, Tom was listening to the whole conversation from the inside of the room. He opened the door and headed to a shortcut down to the cargo pit he found while exploring around the ship.

"They're asking for it." Tom sighed as he hurried down towards the cargo pit.


	4. Chapter 4

As everyone else in the gang were all fast asleep in their rooms, June and Jake Long were dragged mercilessly, in their pjs, out of their rooms and onto the deck of the ship. Danny looked around to spot the entrance of the cargo pit. June and Jake glared at him.

"Why?" June asked.

"Why what?" Ali asked.

"Why did you drag us out of our rooms, yo? I needed to catch up on some 'z's." Jake groaned.

"You can sleep later, right now we gotta check out what's going on with Tom." Danny said.

"Tom? You mean that creepy looking dude?" Jake asked. "He's just misunderstood. There isn't any reason to spy on him."

"Exactly." Tiffany turned to Danny. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Because, if I'm right and that weirdo tries something to kill us all, we'd all be DOOMED!" Danny hissed. "Now come on, let's go."

"Why are we hanging out with him anyway?" June asked Tiffany, who just shrugged and followed him.

As the gang approached the cargo pit, the moonlight shone down on the deck, showing that it was totally deserted. The guards were nowhere to be seen and the captain probably had no idea that they were all awake. The gang slowly walked down to the cargo pit and scanned the area for Tom's Chevy.

They all spotted it after a few seconds and then walked towards it nervously. All of them were nervous, because they knew the consequences if Tom found them messing around with his car. They'd all be 'six feet under'.

As they got closer, the moonlight reflected off the car's trunk panel, highlighting the "Monte Carlo" and "Z34" badges. The approached the car's front slowly and cautiously. Danny froze as he looked on the hood of the Chevy. Tom was lying across the hood with his back resting against the windshield. Tom looked like he dozed off there and looked oddly at peace.

"Ok, we gotta be quiet. We don't want to wake him up." Danny ordered, the whole group obeyed. Nobody wanted to find out what would happen when Tom woke up.

"I don't see anything suspicious." Ali whispered.

"It looks like a normal car to me." June replied.

"This is a total waste of time!" Tiffany said.

"Come on, guys. There has to be something…keep looking!" Danny told the group.

"Zzz…" Jake started snoring and suddenly, his head hit the car with a loud bang. Everyone looked around frantically, making sure that Tom didn't wake up. They sighed of relief, thankful that Tom was a sound sleeper.

"Woah, check this out!" Jake exclaimed, once he regained consciousness.

"What? Is there a gun in there?" Ali asked.

"Are there grenades?" Danny and June began.

"Is there a doughnut?" Tiffany asked. All she received were weird looks from her friends. "What? I'm hungry!"

"Even better…this license plate ROCKS!" Jake whispered. June just hit him on the head.

"Wha – why are you here?!"

"What was that?!" Danny asked.

"What are you doing?!"

"What, it's that voice again!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"Again?! You heard it before?!" Ali exclaimed.

"Get off me, you crazy kids! TOM, WAKE UP!"

"Look at all the pretty stars…" Jake muttered before slamming his head back on the car's hood.

"What?! Get this stupid kid off me!"

Slowly, Tom started to stir and opened his eyes slowly. One thought came to Danny's mind. 'oh crud are we in trouble' Tom's eyes suddenly shot open and glared angrily at the group, then he turned towards his car.

"Shadow, what did they do to you?" Tom asked the car.

"Besides this kid drooling on me, I'm fine." The Chevy suddenly shook violently and forced Jake's head onto the floor. Everyone looked at the car with surprise.

"I told you the car would be alive, you stupid kids!" Tom exclaimed. "I'm a Technomaster!"

Tiffany's eyes widened. A technomaster were the most rare and powerful kind superhumans who walked the face of planet Earth. Whenever Tom wanted to, he could bring every single car in the cargo pit to life and under his control. If Tom had an evil plan up his sleeve, the gang would be almost impossible to stop him.

"How do you think that he brought me to life?" Shadow asked, its headlights flaring angrily at the kids. "Kids are so stupid these days."

"Now scram! Get out of here!" Tom exclaimed as the gang took off out of the cargo pit, without saying a word. Once they were out of the cargo pit, they all headed back to their rooms.

"That was horrible! Let's never do that again!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"I second that!" Ali shouted.

"Guys, come on. Did you see his face? It had 'evil villain' written all over it." Danny told the group.

"You can't be so sure, Danny. I mean – he didn't do anything wrong right?" June asked.

"He didn't do anything wrong…YET!" Danny said.

"Danny, you're overreacting. You should just get a grip, and a good night's sleep. Look at Jake. He's pretty good at sleeping." Ali said, turning her attention to the young dragon, barley being able to walk and almost falling unconscious.

"That's true…wait a minute…where's Tiffany?" Danny asked as the gang looked around.

Meanwhile, Tiffany snuck back into the cargo pit. Tom still sat by Shadow's side, he frowned as he saw Tiffany come in the entrance, but he didn't say a word.

"Hey!" She smiled.

"What's she doing here?" Shadow asked, Tom just shrugged.

"I'm just here to ask you if you'd like to hang out tomorrow." Tiffany asked. Tom blinked, was this some kind of joke? Apparently, Shadow was surprised.

"I don't know…we'll see." Tom told her. She just nodded and went out of the cargo pit and back to her room. She was sure that Hui Hua and Skye would be wondering where she was about now.

"What was that about?" Shadow asked Tom as Tiffany left the cargo pit.

"I don't know…but I think that I better hang out with those kids tomorrow." Tom told his car.

"WHAT?! They came down here to tear me apart! One even drooled on me!" Shadow exclaimed.

"Trust me, once I make sure that those brats are off my back, then everything will run smoothly." Tom told it.

"I'll never understand you…" Shadow grumbled as he shut off its engine and went back to sleep.

Tom smirked. "And you never will."


	5. Chapter 5

"And so I said 'not with my umbrella, you don't'."

The whole table burst out into laughter, except for Jake Long, who was sleeping in his breakfast. Jake turned around and took one look at Tiffany, compared to their first day on the ship, she was looking way happier. He had no idea what the cause was, but whatever happened, everyone in the group was happy it did.

"So, Tif, is that what a Technomaster is? Someone with the power over all technology?" Sky asked.

"He's something like Technis, right?" Danny added.

"That's exactly what a Technomaster is, and Tom's one of them." Tiffany explained. Danny's expression became concerned. Tom had to have something planned. His powers were more powerful than his, so if he hatched something, he had no power to stop it. An army of technology would be disastrous.

"Danny, are you ok?" Jake turned to him.

"I'm fine…but you should probably be asking Jake Long that question." Danny said, lifting Jake Long's head out of his meatloaf, and then plopping it back in since he was obviously not going to be waking up soon.

"So what did you do once everyone left? You just sort of disappeared." Ali asked. Tiffany just smiled, she didn't tell her friends that she invited Tom to hang out with them yet, she hoped that they would take it well…

She thought wrong.

"You'll see." Tiffany smirked as she spotted Tom drowsily holding his breakfast. "Hey, Tom, over here! We saved you a seat!"

"WHAT?! That seat was for him?!" Barry exclaimed.

"ADFGHJKLPOIUYTRW!"

"Larry's right!" Cubby shouted. "I thought that seat was reserved for the president of the United States!"

Everyone just looked at him with a dull expression.

Tom walked over drowsily and sat down in his seat. Everyone just looked at him with shocked faces. Nobody could believe that he was sitting there. Tom just looked at everyone plainly, and then at Jake Long, who was still in his meatloaf.

"Whats-that-boy-doing-in-breakfast?" Tom asked dully.

Nobody answered. Tom just shrugged and helped himself to his eggs. Meanwhile, Danny was giving Tiffany a death glare. He couldn't believe that she invited _him _to the table. Tiffany smiled innocently and went back to her breakfast taco. Everyone else just stayed silent. After a long and awkward moment, Tiffany decided to break the ice.

"So, what's up guys? It's a great morning today, and it's sure good to be…"

"Whatever happened last night was Danny's fault!" Ali exclaimed.

"Wait, wait, wait…me? What do you mean?!" Danny exclaimed.

"You were the one that suggested we should spy on him!" June shouted. "So it's only fair we pin everything on you."

"Nice comeback…" Danny glared at her.

"Yeah sure, blame it on the paranoid halfa." Tom said, slowly snapping back into consciousness. Everyone's eyes widened at the table, even Tom's. "Wha-what I meant to say was…"

"How do you know my secret?" Danny asked.

"…Let's change the subject – it is a great morning." Tom pronounced.

"_How do you know my secret?_" Danny demanded.

"Danny, wait, when you saved the whole world from the disasteroid, everybody knew your secret." June told him.

"Yeah well, only **my **world, Tom's part of the real world!" Danny explained.

"It's obvious." Tom sighed. "I compared two pictures of you and Danny Phantom, all that was different was your hair and eye color. It really isn't that hard to figure out."

"Wait a second, you're obsessed enough to get a picture of Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton?" Sky asked.

"Weirdo…" Cubby chimed in a sing-song voice.

"I'm a goth – ok? I do these things for a reason." Tom said.

Danny was still in shock, this guy could do anything with his secret. If he found a way to duplicate his powers or anything, both worlds could be done for. Apparently, the best way to solve this problem was to act fast. If Tom tried to pull anything stupid on, they had to be ready. But in the meantime, everyone just had to act like everything was normal.

"So, who's up for having fun?" Tiffany asked once breakfast was over, everyone jumped up and walked out of the restaurant. Tiffany turned around to see Tom sitting there.

"Hey, aren't you coming?" She asked.

"I'm invited?" He asked.

"Sure! Um…just find a way to bring him along as well." She told tom, pointing towards Jake Long, who was still in his meatloaf. Tom smirked as he picked the teenager up and dragged him out of the restaurant.

Meanwhile, the gang was at the tennis court. Larry ran around the whole court, hitting the tennis balls randomly on his friends' heads. When it landed on Tom's head, everyone gasped. But Tom just calmly waved his hand towards the direction of the tennis-ball-shooter and it aimed at Larry, then it began shooting tennis balls at the poor stick figure like crazy. He fell to the ground in defeat.

Later, everyone was at the movie theater where they were watching the scariest movie in history. Even Danny was scared at the movie, and he was a ghost. Everyone was shivering, except for Tom, who was about to fall asleep. Ali saw this and raised an eyebrow at Tom, and then resumed screaming when the ghost's lifeless face popped in front of the screen.

Much later, everybody stopped by the arcade. Everyone looked around and Dixon even challenged Tom to the hardest game in arcade history – Dance Dance Mania. The boys watched the screen and tried to match their footsteps with the arrows. In the end, the score was 0 to 10000, Tom won by far.

Then after that, the girls had mercilessly dragged the boys into the mini-shopping mall in the center of the ship. As the girls chose outfits for themselves, the boys (and Hui Hua, who wasn't into shopping for anything at all) just slumped down and looked around, bored out of their minds. Ali looked at an outfit and smirked as she whispered something to Tiffany, who turned around and looked at Tom.

Both the girls smiled as they grabbed the clueless 18 year old and pushed him into a booth, where he came out in a whole new gothic outfit. He looked at the girls with an impressed look. Everyone burst out laughing.

At the end of the day everyone went back to their rooms, exhausted. The only ones out in the deck were Ali, Tom and Tiffany, all laughing hysterically.

"You seriously liked that outfit we picked out for you?" Tiffany asked, surprised.

"Sure, why not? It was my style." Tom smiled.

"Wow, I wonder what Danny was nervous about. You're a cool guy." Ali smirked.

"Yeah, he actually thought that you had something to hide from us. That's hysterical." Tiffany smiled.

"Ha ha, yeah…hysterical…" Tom said nervously. Tiffany and Ali walked towards their rooms while Tom just headed in the direction towards the cargo pit. The girls turned around to see where he was going.

"Hey, genius, our rooms are that way?" Ali told him.

"I just have to talk to Shadow for a sec. I'll talk to both of you tomorrow." Tom smiled.

"Ok…um…bye." Tiffany smiled as she and Ali headed towards the rooms. Tom headed down to the cargo pit. Shadow's headlights immediately lit up at the sight of him.

"Tom, you're alive!"

"What do you mean?" Tom raised an eyebrow.

"You've been hanging out with unstable kids for the whole day, dude. I'm just glad to see you in one piece, especially when they found out about…"

"They didn't find out." Tom told Shadow.

"So, you haven't told them yet?"

"I don't think that they'll be able to handle it." Tom said, looking at his mechanical friend.

"Well, News Flash…they're going to have to find out sooner or later."

"When the time is right, Shadow." Tom told his car. "But these kids are smart, so we have to try hiding it from them as long as possible. But if they're going to have to find out about it, they better be able to handle what my powers can unleash."


	6. Chapter 6

"Yo, Tom. What's up with you?" Jake Long asked before Ali sent another wave of pool water on his head. Everybody gave questioning looks towards Tom to see that he was concerned about something. He then snapped back into reality.

"Nothing, I just stayed up pretty late last night." Tom told them.

"I don't blame you. I couldn't sleep either with all those noises out on the main deck. When I woke up I saw that the whole place was thrashed." Jake told the gang.

"I know. It looked like it was run over by a million cars…" Danny muttered. "Tom, did you have anything to do with this?"

Tom's eyes widened as Danny accused him. He just shook his head quickly. The rest of the gang shrugged the strange feeling off and went back to fooling around. Tom breathed a sigh of relief before scanning the pool area.

Suddenly, he saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Her long blonde hair was flowing in the breeze, and her cool blue eyes seemed to captivate him. Tom's knees became week and his heart skipped a beat. Hui Hua and Dixon noticed this and walked up to tom.

"HI!" Dixon exclaimed, making Tom jump. "If you're done checking your new girlfriend out, we'd like to have some fun now."

"What? New girlfriend…yeah right, she's not my girlfriend. I don't even…" Tom ranted.

"He's babbling, that shows signs of affection." Hui Hua told Dixon with a grin.

"What? I…ugh, you're just kids. Just go along and push Larry into the pool or something." Tom told them. They shrugged and walked off. Suddenly, two people bumped into them and the bump caused the two strangers to drop into the pool. As they came out, their blonde hair was soaking with pool water.

"HEHH, THAT WAS FUN, WASN'T IT, INSANEGUYOFDOOM?" The girl exclaimed and pulled the guy out of the water.

"HI DEDODAKES!" The boy jumped about in the water, the two then turned to Hui Hua and Dixon, who both had shocked faces. They shrugged and climbed out of the pool.

"Um…I guess it's safe to say that both of you are ok, right?" Sky asked the two.

"We're ok! We're totally criss-cross-apple-sause ok!" The girl smiled, before turning to June. "Mind if I jump on you?"

"NO!" June exclaimed, backing away from the pair.

"HI!" The boy exclaimed to Tiffany, Cubby and Larry. "I'm on a sugar rush, I like pie, muffins are awesome and flying doughnuts are my life." After he said all that in one breath, the boy gave them a huge, unnatural smile. The trio stood there dumbstruck…

"FINALLY!" They all exclaimed, rushing up to the boy.

"So um…who are you guys?" Jake asked.

"I'm Dedodakes and that's InsaneGuyofDoom." The girl said. "And we're your FAIRY GOD PARENTS!"

"What?" Jake asked in confusion.

"He said 'what'!" Dedodakes and InsaneGuyofDoom laughed hysterically, Jake just slowly backed away from them. Meanwhile, Tom was just sitting at the poolside, staring at the kids with a dull expression. The girl that he was staring at before walked towards him and took a seat next to him.

"Hi." She smiled.

"Hey." He said, after an awkward pause.

"So, you're babysitting them?" The girl smiled.

"No…they're my…friends." Tom stammered.

"Ah, your friends. I think it's great when a guy's good with kids. They look pretty nice too." The girl said, staring at the kids.

"MAJOR CANNONBALL!" Dedodakes exclaimed as everybody jumped into the pool at one go, causing water to go everywhere. Tom just looked at the girl with a questioning look.

"Um…'nice' wouldn't be the word I would use to describe them."

"You can say that again." The girl laughed. "I'm Jessica, by the way."

"I'm Tom." Tom told her.

"Well, Tom…I kind of have to go do something right now. I'll see you later, ok?" Jessica told him.

"Right…I'll see you later." Tom said, staring at Jessica as she walked off. He gave a lovestruck sigh as she left.

"I LIKE PIE!" InsaneGuyofDoom exclaimed.

"I know, you told me already." Barry said.

"I LIKE PIE!" InsaneGuyofDoom repeated.

"I know."

"I LIKE PIE!"

"I know."

"I LIKE PIE!"

"I know!"

"I LIKE PIE!"

"Shut up!"

"I LIKE PIE!"

"STOP TALKING! YOUR VOICE IS DEAFENING!"

"I LIKE PIE!"

Barry said nothing more, he just calmly stood up and ran away screaming from the pool. InsaneGuyofDoom blinked dully at Barry and shrugged, he turned back to watching his new friends.

"What's with him?" Insane asked himself.

Tom still sat by the poolside, still thinking of Jessica on his mind. Tiffany noticed this. She swam up to him and joined him by the poolside, watching her friends make total idiots of themselves.

"So?" She asked. Tom looked at her with a confused face.

"When were you going to tell us that you liked her?" She asked again. Tom's calm expression changed immediately.

"WHAT?! Like her?! Who likes her?! She's just a girl I met and…" Tom ranted. Tiffany just looked at him with a look that told him that his feelings were obvious. "I don't know…wait a second, why am I talking to you for? You're 4 years younger than me!"

"Because I'm a great kid?" Tiffany smirked. Tom rolled his eyes. Suddenly, he heard a faint beeping coming from his…wristwatch? He pulled it out and tapped it once. Shadow's voice came out of the watch.

"Tom, I got a message for you in here." Shadow told him.

"Really, who's it from?" Tom asked.

"Your brothers." Shadow sighed. Tom groaned as he got up.

"I guess I'm going to have to take this." Tom said as he walked towards the direction of the cargo pit. "Are you coming?"

"I'm invited?" Tiffany asked.

"Come on." He sighed. Tiffany just got up and ran towards him. Tom mentally slapped himself, why exactly did he invite this kid along? She could figure out his secret and she could tell everybody, then everything would be ruined. Tom sighed, he knew one thing…

If he could make sure the others thought that he was their friend, then nothing would be ruined.

"I LIKE PIE!" Insane shouted to Jake.

"Me too." He said dully.

"I LIKE PIE!"

"Me too."

"I LIKE PIE!"

"Me too!"

"I LIKE PIE!"

"Insane, would you please not bother him? Can't you see he's aggravated?" Dedodakes sighed. Insane glared at her and walked away.

"Thanks for the save." Jake smiled.

"I like uranium." Dedodakes grinned.

"Um…ok…"

"I LIKE URANIUM!"

"Oh no…"


	7. Chapter 7

"What, what's she doing here?!"

Tom turned around to see Tiffany waving like a dork to Shadow. The car glared at Tom, it thought that he was going to come ALONE, not bring any company. Plus, Shadow still didn't get over the night when Danny told the group to "investigate".

"Calm down, I come in peace." Tiffany told him.

"That's what you said the last time, and I had to clean dragon spit off my hood."

"You mean, I had to." Tom told the car.

"…ehh…"

"Alright, Shadow. Where's the message from my brothers?" Tom asked, Shadow didn't answer, instead two grinning faces showed up on a screen that popped out of its hood.

"Yo, prick. What's going on with you?" The first figure asked Tom. He had raven black hair. Tom stared at the screen in anger. Tiffany looked at him, Tom seemed incredibly angry.

"Guess what, loser? Mum gave me your room, so you better hurry back before I mess the whole thing up. Plus – I got a pet Iguana. I don't think you would mind if I let it eat through your closet, right?" The boy mocked. "I didn't think so."

"Dude, Rob told me that I could borrow your extra comb." The other figure said towards the screen, he had fiery red hair and piercing green eyes. "Thanks, bro. I needed something to scrape the fungus from the roof."

"I'll take good care of your room, buddy. When you come back, it'll be messier than ever!" The guy with black hair smiled. "Or better yet, don't come back at all. It'll save me from looking at your ugly face every single day."

"When I get back, I swear…" Tom snarled.

"Alright, that's it for today. We'll both talk to you when you come back." The redhead told the camera.

"See you later, prick." Tom's annoying brother said, ending the message. When Tiffany and Shadow looked at Tom, his face was red with anger. He looked like he was about to explode anytime soon.

"Who were they?" Tiffany asked, confused.

"Those are my older brothers. The redhead is John and the Black haired idiot is Rob. I hate them with every fiber of my being." Tom muttered.

"But they don't look anything like you." Tiffany said.

Tom smiled, "Thanks. I still have a hard time believing I'm related to them." Then, Tom's smile became a frown as he ranted about how dead they would be when he got home.

"What's up with him?" Tiffany asked the Chevy.

"Tom's brothers are the most annoying thing on the Earth since Barney. He can't stand them."

"I don't see how he could even live with them, those two are jerks." Tiffany told Shadow.

"Those IDIOTS! I can't believe them! WHEN I GET BACK HOME, I SWEAR, BOTH OF THEM ARE GOING TO DIE!" Tom exclaimed.

"Tom, calm down!" Tiffany shouted.

"I can't calm down! Honestly, Tif! You don't understand what I'm going through, you don't understand how annoying it is to have someone say horrible things about you when you didn't do anything wrong!" Tom exclaimed.

"You don't know." Tiffany muttered, Tom heard her and stopped screaming.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"My dad's unstable. He's terrible. He's the worst father ever! I mean…what sick mind would ever call you a 'sick, twisted, little mistake' or a 'stupid, vile creature'?" Tiffany asked Tom.

He stopped and considered her words; this girl was seriously hurting inside. Sure, everybody's siblings made fun of them, and Tom had his revenge multiple times, but this was her dad calling her all these things.

"I…guess we just have a lot in common." Tom told her.

"Mushy…"

"Shadow! Come on, have a heart." Tom told the car.

"Um…hello? I'm all cogs and bolts, I don't have room for a heart."

"It's ok, just forget about it. Sometimes I just want my dad to go away forever." Tiffany said. Tom looked at the girl with pity in his eyes.

"It's natural to feel that way, but take it from me. Everything will be better once you go home. Besides, you have tons of great friends here on this ship that'll be with you all the way." Tom told her.

"Yeah, I hate to say it…and I mean I REALLY hate to say it…but you're not that bad, kid."

"Did that really come from Shadow?" Tiffany asked Tom.

"I'm surprised too." He grinned. "Anyway, you better go find your friends. I'll be down here if anyone needs me." Tom told her. She nodded as she ran out of the cargo pit and onto the main deck.

Every one of her friends was probably inside the arcade or something, either way, Tiffany was going to go have a hard time locating all of them.

Suddenly, a sound came from inside the cargo pit, it sounded like a loud, heavy crash. Tiffany turned around to see loads of cars all gang up on the main deck, surrounding her. She looked around in shock, to see Tom riding on one of the bigger cars.

"Tom?" She asked, dumbstruck. Tom's blue eyes were now glowing red. He raised his hand and pointed it towards Tiffany, soon enough, every single one of the cars raced towards the teenager.

Tiffany braced herself for impact, but the cars never got to hit her as a huge surge of electricity stopped them all in their tracks. Tiffany turned around to see Dedodakes and Insane holding the cars back, with electricity surging from their hands.

"RUN!" They exclaimed. Tiffany obeyed as she ran out of the scene. Suddenly, Ali rose above the two teens and hit Tom off the car with a huge wave that she summoned out of the sea.

As Tom got up, his eyes were still blood red. He waved his hand again and he forced all of the cars towards the three super powered teenagers. Ali made another huge wave of sea water rise up from behind the ship. Dedodakes and Insane forced the electricity from their hands towards the wave and they made the two forces join together.

The wave of electricity crashed on the main deck, sending all the cars flying back into the cargo pit and Tom lying on the ground. Tiffany came back to the scene, seeing Tom slowly stand up and everyone else braced for another major battle. As Tom's eyes slowly slid open, Tiffany raced up to him.

Tom grabbed his head and moaned, "Ow my head. What hit me?...Oh crud."

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" Tiffany exclaimed. "WHY DID YOU ATTACK ME?!"

"What…Tif, what are you talking about?" Tom asked. "Oh no…it happened again, didn't it?"

"Tif, back away, he's dangerous." Ali told her.

"What do you mean 'it happened again'?" Tiffany asked.

"I didn't want you to meddle in this situation. Why are you here instead of looking for your friends?" Tom asked.

"Tif, get away!" Insane exclaimed.

"So you didn't want me to meddle with your plans to make an army of technology?" Tiffany asked.

"Wait, that's not it…" Tom told her.

"Then what was that? You told your cars to attack me!" Tiffany shouted.

"I can't believe you got out alive either…" Tom muttered. "But that's not what I mean…"

"Forget it, come on, Tif." Dedodakes told her as all four of them walked off, Tiffany still staring disbelievingly at Tom. Tom ignored her as he walked back down to the thrashed cargo pit. Shadow's headlights pointed to Tom.

"DUDE! Could you warn me before you send tons of cars crashing into the cargo pit?!" The Chevy exclaimed, and then it looked at Tom's expression. "They found out, didn't they?"

"Yeah…now they're going to have to face the consequences." Tom said.


	8. Chapter 8

"HE DID WHAT?!"

The whole gang looked at Ali, Insane and Dedodakes in disbelief. Danny had totally lost all signs of doubt about Tom. He didn't think that Tom was capable of something that terrible. The rest of the gang were completely speechless, Tom was actually considered a nice guy to them, and they all couldn't believe it.

Tiffany slumped down in her seat, looking as terrible and depressed as she was on the first day on the ship. Jake, Hui Hua and Dixon turned to their friend. Those three had known Tiffany for a long time, and they were all pretty worried about her.

"Tif, are you ok?" Jake asked her.

"He…I can't believe it…Tom…" Tiffany stammered. Tom had actually told her that they had lots in common; she thought that he was the only guy that could relate to her. Now she didn't know what to think.

"Don't you think that he's just misunderstood instead of evil?" Hui Hua asked Dixon.

"He tried to run Tif over, what do you think?" Dixon asked.

"TOM BAD, BAD TOM!" Cubby exclaimed.

"Trust me, Hui Hua, everybody here's just pretty shocked about it." Sky told her companion. The whole table grew grim as they spotted Tom nearing them, they all cast him death glares. Tom ignored them and took his usual seat at the table. The whole group then stood up and walked away to a different table.

Tom sighed. This was disastrous. Now he had no friends besides Shadow. He had actually begun to like that bunch of brats. Apparently nothing could cheer him up anymore. His thoughts were immediately changed as a familiar figure took a seat next to him.

"Hey." Jessica greeted him. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail with her two Ember McLain like bangs cascading down the side of her face. She wore black hip-hugging jeans, a black belly shirt showing off her midriff, a black hoodie tied around her waist with the sleeves, and an old pair of black Vans skate shoes. He stayed silent and took a bite out of his breakfast.

"I don't understand." Tom said.

"What do you mean?" Jessica asked him.

"Why they want to avoid me like that? I'm just so misunderstood that it's not funny anymore." Tom told her, glaring at the kids.

"They just need time, you just watch, they'll come running back to you soon enough." Jessica gave Tom a warm smile.

"Doubt it." Tom told her. "I just made the biggest mistake of my 18 year old life." Jessica's smile slowly dropped, she really didn't want to see this boy upset.

"I tell you what, I want you spend this one day with me." Jessica told him. "And then we'll see what we can do to get your friends back, ok?"

"You…you want to hang out with me?" Tom asked her.

"Sure, I mean…it's not like you're an evil villain or anything. Right?" Jessica laughed.

"Um...sure...right. That sounds ridiculous." Tom told her.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had already left the table. Everyone walked together, still thinking about how ridiculous it was that Tom could have betrayed them like this. June and Jake Long then snapped back into reality.

Where were Tiffany and Jake?

Meanwhile, Tiffany and Jake were both on the thrashed main deck. Tiffany sighed as she concentrated on two barrels on the other side of the ship. Jake watched her, worry in his heart.

"What happened, Jake? Everything was alright at first." Tiffany said.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked.

"Everything was ok, until Tom decided to go against us." Tiffany sighed. Jake looked into the distance. He didn't have any argument against that. Tiffany's eyebrows tilted as her expression grew angry.

"I mean, why did he do that?! I thought he was our friend!" Tiffany shouted, as she got angry, the barrels on the other side of the ship started shaking violently.

"That was so unnecessary, then when he turned against us…that JERK!" Tiffany exclaimed, as she shouted out that last sentence, the two barrels flew across the main deck and landed with a splash in the water.

"Woah…dude…"

Tiffany and Jake turned to see Juniper and Jake Long, staring at her with shocked expressions. Soon enough, the rest of the group trailed behind them. Apparently, everyone had seen Tiffany use mind-power to lift the barrels off the deck and into the water.

"How?" June asked, even as a Te Xuan Ze, she didn't see anything like that in her life.

"Oh…me? I…I'm a telepath." Tiffany told the group. "I can control stuff with my mind and I can read people's thoughts."

"Wait, if you could read someone's thoughts, why didn't you read Tom's and see this coming?" Danny asked.

"I didn't see any reason to." Tiffany frowned. "Until now…"

"So why exactly didn't you use your powers when you were trapped by the cars?" Dedodakes asked. "And how did Jake know about it?"

"Well, obviously…he's my angel of light. He's known me forever." Tiffany explained. "I was about to use my powers until you guys came along and told me to run."

"So you're a telepath, I'm an Aquatian, Insane and Dedodakes are Electri-powered, Danny's a halfa, June's the guardian of magical creatures…" Ali ranted.

"We get it!" Danny told her.

"WE'RE AWESOME! WOO!" Ali exclaimed. Everyone looked at her with questioning looks.

"I doubt that."

Everyone turned around to see Tom riding on more vehicles, glaring at the kids with bloodshot, red eyes. Everyone with powers braced themselves for battle. Tom just grinned evilly.

"If that's the way you want it, FINE!" Tom exclaimed, as all the cars rushed towards the gang. Tiffany made one car bang into the car that Tom was riding on, which caused him to fall towards the ground.

"Why are you doing this?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" She demanded. As Tom opened his eyes, she noticed one thing. They weren't red anymore, they were blue. Tom couldn't change his eye color, even when he used his powers like this.

"Tif…you…you have to get out of here." Tom warned her.

"What do you mean? What's going on?" Sky asked him.

"My powers are unstable; it's not my fault that this is happening. I tried to tell you, but she won't let me!" Tom exclaimed weakly.

"What do you mean? Who won't let you?" Jake Long exclaimed.

"She keeps hypnotizing me! It's all her fault this is happening…" Tom told the gang. Suddenly, his eyes turned red again, he controlled a bunch of cars to ram into Tiffany, Jake Long and Sky, causing them to crash on the other end of the ship.

"That poor, naive boy. Apparently his powers weren't strong enough, no wonder it was that easy to hypnotize him." A voice came from the corner of the ship, everyone turned their heads to see Jessica, smiling evilly with her eyes as red as Tom's.

"YOU! So Tom was never evil, you're the one who keeps doing this to him!" June exclaimed.

"He was trying to keep his unstable powers a secret so we wouldn't get hurt! And you took advantage of that!" Ali shouted. "MEANIE!"

"YOU'RE A BAD, BAD LADY!" Insane exclaimed, electricity charging in his and Dedodake's hands.

"Tom wasn't kidding, you all are pretty smart brats. Now get ready to get your just desserts." Jessica smirked.

"OOH! I KNOW, I WANT A COOKIE!" Cubby exclaimed, everyone glared at him. "I…I'll just shut up now…"

"You'll never get away with this, you witch!" Jake exclaimed.

"A witch, you say?" Jessica asked him as magic rays surged from her hands and into the heavens. Then the rays hit Hui Hua, Sky, Dixon, Cubby, Jake Long and June. Soon, those 6 were under her spell. They all charged for battle, leaving the rest shocked.

"You don't know the half of it." Jessica smirked as our heroes's hypnotized friends all rushed up to them, ready to attack.


	9. Chapter 9

"You don't know the half of it." Jessica smirked as our heroes's hypnotized friends all rushed up to them, ready to attack.

Danny dodged all the attacks that Jake Long and June threw at him. He tried his best not to hurt his friends, unfortunately, they didn't think the same. Suddenly, June kicked Danny swiftly in the stomach, which caused him to tumble back and fall on the deck. Jake Long breathed a fireball into his hand and got ready to thrust it towards Danny.

"Say goodbye, ghost boy." He smirked as he rose his hand up. As he brought it down towards Danny, a huge wave surrounded Jake Long and Juniper, sweeping them off their feet and onto the railing, almost thrusting them overboard. Danny turned around to see Ali, satisfied with herself.

"Ali, what are you doing?! They're still our friends!" Danny exclaimed.

"They'll forgive us later, but on the bright side, I finally get revenge on Cubby for STEALING MY COOKIE!" Ali told him, sweeping Cubby away with another huge wave. The impact sent the screaming red panda slamming onto the deck.

"Sky, snap out of it. It's Jake, your friend, remember?" Jake asked as Sky threw all her powers at him. Jake spread his wings and rocketed up into the heavens, Sky followed him. Once they were above the clouds, Sky sent a powerful blow to his head, slamming him down onto the ship.

"What friend?" Sky asked, rushing back down to finish him off. As she landed on the deck and got ready to send a large wave of her power to finally finish him off, a car suddenly slammed into her. Hui Hua and Dixon noticed this and ran towards Tiffany, who had used her powers to hit Sky with a car. Tiffany used the same car to slam into her other friends, which sent them slamming into another wall.

"THAT'S FOR COPYING OFF MY HOMEWORK!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"Wait, what about them trying to attack me?" Jake asked. Tiffany paused.

"Um…yeah, that too." She smirked, as she rushed back to the battle. Meanwhile, Dedodakes and Insane backed Tom up against a wall with all his cars.

"THIS IS FOR URANIUM!" Dedodakes exclaimed, sending an electrical wave towards the cars.

"THIS IS FOR PIE!" Insane shouted, sending another strong wave towards Tom, but Tom's power was too strong, and it sent the electrical waves back to the two teenagers and slammed them onto the main deck.

"Ok, I take that back, I don't like uranium enough to go through this." Dedodakes said weakly.

"I still like pie." Insane said breathlessly.

Soon, after a whole lot of action, our heroes were weak and almost unable to battle. Danny and Tiffany noticed one thing; Tom was the one with the most power. If they could find a way to break him out of his trance, then maybe he could be with them instead of against them.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Tiffany told Danny, who nodded in agreement. They both rushed out of the battle and towards Tom. Ali glared at both of them.

"Oh sure, ditch us NOW!" Ali shouted.

Tiffany and Danny ran towards the large crowd of cars. Danny flew up to the technomaster, who glared at him with piercing red eyes. He tried to send more cars to slam into Danny, but Tiffany used the most of her mind power to prevent the cars from hurting him.

"Tom, snap out of it! We're your friends!" Danny exclaimed, Tom's eyes flickered for a moment, its color changing. But then, Tom still stayed in his hypnotic trance.

"I have no friends!" Tom exclaimed, sending a car to slam into Danny, causing him to crash on the deck. Tiffany used her power to make one car crash into the car Tom was riding on, making him lose balance and slam onto the deck.

"Tom, please! Snap out of it, we need you!" Tiffany exclaimed, Tom ignored her and sent one car to crash into him, making her crash onto the deck as well. Ali, Jake, Dedodakes and Insane were losing badly and the impact sent them crashing down towards Danny and Tiffany. They all looked up weakly to see the hypnotized teens nearing them. Jessica smirked.

"Now Tom, finish them!" She exclaimed, but Tiffany spoke up with the last of her strength.

"No! Tom, snap out of it, she's not your friend, we are! Fight it!" She exclaimed, Tom's eyes flickered again, but this time it stayed blue longer than last time.

"We're sorry we doubted you, we didn't mean it!" Ali exclaimed. "Please snap out of it!"

"Tom, come on! I'd give up all pie-kind if you could just snap out of it!" Insane exclaimed.

"Really?" Dedodakes asked.

"No…but still!" Insane shouted.

Tom's eyes flickered from red to blue, continuously. He rolled off the car and slumped to the deck in pain, clutching his aching head and screaming intensely.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! FINISH THEM!" Jessica exclaimed.

"Tom, we're your friends, but you can destroy us and let her win if you want. It's a choice you have to make." Danny told him. Tom kept screaming until finally, his eyes flickered back to blue and he slumped back down to the deck. He slowly stood up and turned around to face Jessica, with angry, blue eyes.

"No!" Jessica exclaimed, the sudden shock caused the rest of our heroes to break out of their trance.

"What happened?" Dixon asked, then received a swift hit on the head from Tiffany. "OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! I'M NOT HYPNOTIZED ANYMORE!"

"Oh...eh…oops…" Tiffany smirked.

"Useless, all of you are useless!" Jessica exclaimed, magic raised up from her hands and formed a large portal in the sky. The portal acted like a vacuum cleaner and tried sucking everybody in it.

"You all are no use to me anymore, so I should just dispose of all of you!" Jessica exclaimed. Everybody clung on to the railings of the ship for dear life, but everyone knew that this was the end for them, and there was no way that they could get out of this.

"JERONIMO!"

Jessica looked in one direction to see Shadow catapulting itself off a ramp and thrusting itself straight towards her. Jessica screamed as Shadow shoved her into the portal. As Shadow rushed away from the scene, the portal closed and the fight ended. Jessica was gone forever.

"That was dangerous…I just did something dangerous!" Shadow exclaimed. "If I ever try to do something like that again, Tom, I want you to shut off my engine, you got me?"

"Shadow, you rock!" Tiffany exclaimed. "You know, for a selfish, pushy car, you're ok."

"I'll take that as a compliment, kid."

"So it's all over?" Hui Hua asked.

"FINALLY! WHAHAHHAA!" Cubby exclaimed, running around in circles. Larry and Barry came out from behind a corner, looking badly bruised. Everyone stared at them in surprise.

"Larry, Barry, you're alive?!" Insane shouted.

"Of course, we're alive, idiot. The heroes can't die in this story!" Barry exclaimed.

"So how did you survive?" Danny asked.

"SXDFGHJKLQWERTYUIOSDFGHJKLWERTYUISDFGHJKSDFGHW, DFGHJKDFGHJUTHYJJKSDFGJSD…SDHFDSHNFSDHJLL!" Larry bellowed. Everyone nodded their head.

"Ah…wow, that's a pretty good story. I'm glad you made it out alive." Ali smiled.

So the gang continued their cruise, their destination drawing near. Every one of them was sure that their problems were swept away, but little did they know, that there was a huge problem waiting for them in the future.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey, Insane, look what I got you!" Ali shouted triumphantly, putting a piece of pie down on the breakfast table. Insane looked at it dully for a few seconds.

"I don't want it." Insane told her, Ali's jaw almost hit the ground.

"But, you kept telling us that you liked pie!" Ali exclaimed.

"I like pie. I didn't say I liked eating it." Insane told her. Ali looked at the boy in disbelief, she had gone through a lot of trouble to get that piece of pie, and the line was incredibly long. Ali was fuming with anger and she looked like she was about to burst…

"Oh well, more for me." Ali said, sitting down and eating the pie, then slowly levitating the water from Dedodakes's cup into her own.

"What are you doing?" Dedodakes asked Ali.

"I'm thirsty." Ali told her, taking a sip out of her own cup. "And I'm too lazy to get more water from the buffet table."

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" Dedodakes exclaimed, jumping towards Ali, but Danny held her back.

"Woah, easy, you can get her back later!" Danny exclaimed. Dedodakes glared at Ali, once breakfast was over, the Aquatian was going to get one seriously painful electric shock.

"Dedodakes, don't take it so personally." Ali told her.

"Shut up, I'm grieving." Dedodakes sulked. Everyone at the table burst out laughing, Tiffany stopped when she noticed something. Everyone was present for breakfast this morning, but Tom was missing.

"Wait a second, where's Tom?" Tiffany asked the gang.

"He's probably doing something like torturing Shadow." June smiled. Meanwhile, as the gang were having breakfast, Tom was in the cargo pit…

"Why does your transmission case have to be such a pain to get to, Shadow?" asked Tom, who was on a creeper underneath the Chevrolet Monte Carlo known as "Shadow". Tom had taken a red toolbox out of Shadow's trunk that was sitting next to the talking car, and next to the toolbox were boxes labeled "Milzy Motorsports Special Order consists of: LQ1 Headers, exhaust kit, tuned PCM, 4T60e Transmission build up kit, Garret T5 turbocharger/intercooler combo."

"Don't blame me. Blame the designers at General Motors!" protested the black coupe. "OW! Don't go there!"

"GAAHH!!! I can't do this all by myself. We'll never be ready for the 'Australian Outback 1/4 Mile Tourney'" yelled Tom, a frustrated look swept across his face.

The Australian Outback ¼ Mile Tourney was the main reason Tom came on this cruise. Pretty soon, the ship was going to stop in Sydney, Australia and let the passengers stay there for the remainder of the trip. Many people came to surf or sightsee, but Tom was in this because of the tournament.

"What are you doing?"

Tom turned around to see the whole gang looking at him with concerned faces. He gave them a weak smile as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. The gang neared him to see him fixing Shadow up.

"Fixing up this very annoying Chevy." Tom replied.

"What?! How am I annoying?"

"You're made out of so many different parts." Tom told it.

"…Point taken…"

"So I guess you don't need us. Come on, yo, we're goin' to the arcade." Jake Long told the group as they got ready to leave the cargo pit. Tom rolled out from under Shadow and stopped the group.

"Woah! Who said that you needed to leave?" Tom asked. "I need help more than ever on this."

"Tell me about it." Shadow sighed.

Tom then explained everything to the gang, everything about the tournament and how important it was to him. He also explained how he couldn't work on Shadow earlier since Jessica was hypnotizing him. Everyone looked at each other and nodded.

"Sure, we'll help you destroy your car…um…I mean, fix Shadow up." Tiffany told him.

"Thanks! I think…" Tom muttered as the group headed down to Shadow, who looked nervously at the gang.

"Calm down, Shadow, we're not going to kill you." Hui Hua told it.

"Yeah, you're going to tear me apart, and then you're going to kill me…HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Jake Long came out from under the hood, holding a wrench and covered in oil. "Alright, Shadow, try revving your engine now."

"Fine, but I don't see the point of this…" Shadow told him, suddenly, the engine's rev was lounder and stronger than ever. Everyone looked at the young dragon, impressed.

"Alright, I'll let you guys mess around with me this once. ONLY this once." Shadow told the gang.

"Got it, let's rip him to shreds!" Ali exclaimed.

"Wait, what?!"

As the gang worked on him, Cubby decided to explore what Shadow was made out of. He climbed into the drivers seat and started pressing buttons rapidly.

"What's this do? What's this do? OOH! This one looks really shiny!" Cubby exclaimed, pushing the button to switch the radio on. Jake noticed this and pulled Cubby out of the driver's seat. The radio then started to work and it played a song…

**Everyone's watchin' to see what you will do**

**Everyone's lookin' at you, Oh**

**Everyone's wonderin' will you come out tonight**

**Everyone's tryin' to get it right, get it right**

Tiffany and Jake were both under the hood, fixing random parts of Shadow. Tiffany took the wrench and tightened a bolt, unfortunately, that sent oil spilling onto Jake's face. She smiled innocently and ignored the death glare that she got.

**Everybody's workin' for the weekend**

**Everybody wants a new romance**

**Everybody's goin' off the deep end**

**Everybody needs a second chance, Oh**

Danny and June were arguing about which design to spray paint onto Shadow. Cubby started running randomly all over the place and accidentally knocked both the stencils out of their hands. As Danny and June bent down to pick the stencils out, they could see the two stencils joined together in a unique design. They smiled as they picked up a new piece of paper and sketched their idea on.

**You want a piece of my heart**

**you better start from the start**

**you wanna be in the show**

**c'mon baby let's go**

Hui Hua and Sky were both shining the hood. Jake Long came along and he felt a slight sneeze coming out of his nose, he let it out, except that he let it out on the hood of the car. Hui Hua and Sky were both burnt from his fiery sneeze, they both glared at him, while he kept walking on.

**Everyone's lookin' to see if it was you**

**Everyone wants you to come through**

**Everyone's hopin' it'll all work out**

**Everyone's waiting to hold you out**

Tiffany came out from under Shadow, coughing uncontrollably and covered in oil. Tom walked up to her and held out his hand, waiting for her to pass him the wrench. She rolled her eyes as she gave Tom the wrench and watched him go underneath the car with the creeper.

**Everybody's workin' for the weekend**

**Everybody wants a new romance, hey yeah**

**Everybody's goin' off the deep end**

**Everybody needs a second chance, Oh**

Insane walked up and saw the design that Danny and June had made. He took the pencil from their hands and started sketching on the paper, ignoring their surprised looks.

**You want a piece of my heart**

**you better start from the start**

**you wanna be in the show**

**c'mon baby let's go**

**Hey**

Dedodakes and Ali then walked up to Danny and June right after Insane had finished sketching. As June lowered the pencil to the paper, Ali snatched it from her and started sketching on the paper, Dedodakes did the same thing. Once they finished, she handed the pencil to June, grinning widely.

**You want a piece of my heart**

**you better start from the start**

**you wanna be in the show**

**c'mon baby let's go**

Jake, June and Danny all put the stencil towards Shadow and watched anxiously as Tiffany started shaking the can of spray paint wildly, and then started spraying the stencil madly. Unfortunately, the paint also got on their faces. They glared at Tiffany, who dropped the spray paint and ran for her life.

**You want a piece of my heart**

**you better start from the start**

**you wanna be in the show**

**c'mon baby let's go**

As the song finished, everybody looked at Shadow in awe. Sure, he wasn't exactly finished yet, but he looked really good. Everyone headed to the deck, satisfied. Tom looked at the kids, gratefully.

"Hey, thanks guys. I couldn't have made him look this good without ya." He told them.

"We know." Insane smiled, but then received a hit on the shoulder from Ali.

"What do we do now?" Danny asked the gang. A smile slowly crept across his face once he realized that everyone was thinking the same thing. Without hesitating, everyone rushed towards the arcade. Tiffany was about to run before Sky and Jake stopped her. She turned around, both their faces were full of worry and doubt.

"What's wrong?" She asked the two. "Come on, I want to play 'whack a clown'!"

"Isn't it whack-a-mole?" Sky asked.

"Mole's aren't pure evil, Sky." Tiffany smiled. But Jake and Sky's faces stayed serious. "Alright, seriously, what's wrong?"

"You know that angels of life are only supposed to stay on Earth until their time is up, right?" Sky asked Tiffany. She nodded her head, and then Sky turned to Jake. "Well…Jake's gotta go."

Tiffany was shocked, Jake had been on Earth with her for a long time, he had become her best friend and he had to leave just like that. Sky and Jake could see her expression.

"Well…when does he have to leave?" Tiffany asked.

"Sometime when we're in Sydney, we're not sure yet." Sky told her. Jake looked at Tiffany's depressed expression.

"At least I still have some time to spend with you guys." Jake told her. "That's good news…"

"Yeah…perfect." Tiffany told them, walking off towards the arcade. Jake and Sky stayed behind watching her.

"That's how we'd picture she'd take it, wasn't it?" Sky asked Jake, who nodded dully. Personally, Sky couldn't believe Jake was leaving either. He was the only angel of light that she knew, without him she would be the only one left.

As Tiffany walked into the arcade, everyone noticed at once that something was wrong. Nobody knew what, except for Hui Hua and Dixon, they both walked up to her.

"Sky told you about it, didn't she?" Dixon asked. Tiffany didn't answer them. She just smiled briefly and walked deeper into the arcade. Enjoying this vacation was going to be harder than she thought.


	11. Chapter 11

"Hui Hua, stop it!" Dixon exclaimed, Hui Hua just kept laughing maniacally in his face. "HUI HUA, IT'S FREAKY!" She didn't stop. She just kept going and ticking the poor boy off.

"Listen to him, girl. He's stunned out of his mind." Jake Long told Hui Hua. She sighed and muttered a small 'funsuckers' under her breath. June sat by the deck shining her skateboard. Danny then walked over to her.

"Can you tell me again why you're refusing to come to Sydney with us?" Danny asked her.

"We have a skateboarding tournament in Queensland; we'll see you on the way back." June told Danny. Danny looked over to the rest of his friends. They were annoying each other again…as usual…

"I can understand you and Jake Long going off to the tournament, but why exactly do you want Larry and Barry to come along?" Danny asked. June gave him a sly smile.

"Those two are the definition of annoying, I bet that we can tick off a few of the contestants before the competition." June told him.

"Hey, isn't that cheating?"

"No plan is perfect."

"My precious, I won't let anybody hurt you, my precious…" Cubby muttered, clutching a cookie. Insane and Dedodakes walked in his direction, took one look at the cookie and frantically started to grab at it. Soon, all three of them were rolling around on the deck, trying to snatch the cookie.

"Hey, guys, look!" Ali exclaimed, everybody stopped what they were doing and looked off into the distance. There they could see the faint outline of surfers around a beach, they had reached Sydney.

"This is awesome! Surf, sand and sun, here we come!" Ali exclaimed, running off the ship before anybody else did once it reached the dock. The rest of the gang grabbed their entire luggage and walked off.

"You're sure you don't want to come? It's going to be fun." Jake called out to his friends, still on the ship.

"Nah, we'll be fine. We want that skateboarding trophy, yo." Jake Long told him.

"Wait a second, somebody's missing…" Tiffany said as she did a head count. Sky smirked.

"3…2…1…" She counted. An engine revved loudly as Shadow rolled off the ship and he stopped right in front of the group. As they watched the ship take off into the distance, heading for Queensland, Tom jumped out of Shadow. Shadow looked great. The graphics they had painted glinted brightly as the sun reflected off the graphics. He had two fat light blue racing stripes from front to back, "Shadow" was spelled out in light blue bubble letters on the doors, and criss-crossing red and lime green stripes across both sides. (A/N If you saw the car, you'd see how bubble letters go with the car's body lines)

"See Tom? I told you that we should've fixed me up here in Sydney, we almost missed getting off the ship!" Shadow exclaimed.

"We almost missed getting off it, but we got off anyway." Tom smirked.

"…Point taken."

"So that's what took you so long." Ali told him.

"YAY! Our vacation officially starts NOW!" Dedodakes exclaimed.

"Ah…no, the vacation officially starts when we get to the hotel." Shadow told them.

"What?! Aww…" Insane whined.

"Don't worry, we picked out a pretty cool one. You guys can check in along with us." Tom told them. Everyone shrugged as they wondered how they were going to get there, and then they were all shocked when Tom told them that they were going to walk.

"WHAT?! THE HOTEL'S PROBABLY WAY FAR AWAY AND WE'RE WALKING THERE?!" Cubby exclaimed. "NOOO!"

"Calm down, jeez. The hotel's right by the beach, so it's not that far away." Shadow told him.

"Oh, in that case…" Cubby said as he jumped on Tom's shoulders. "LEAD THE WAY, TOMMY!"

Tom rolled his eyes as he threw Cubby off his shoulders and lead the gang towards the hotel. After a while, they finally reached the beach and looked up to an elegant, tall building.

"See, I told you it was cool." Tom told them. "Now you guys go check in first, while I find somewhere to work on Shadow."

As the gang entered the hotel, they were even more amazed. It looked as good inside as it did on the outside. There was one trial they had to face in the hotel, it wasn't finding their rooms, it was encouraging Cubby that elevators weren't that evil, and they had to deal with him screaming his head off until they reached their floor.

"Alright, everybody, this is the plan…everybody get into a room as fast as you can before Tom gets back!" Cubby exclaimed, everyone obeyed as they ran inside a room.

"We're sharing a room together? AWESOME!" Ali exclaimed to Dedodakes, who looked around her room. It looked great, it was just like a beach, but indoors.

"WOAH! Check this out!" Dixon, Cubby and Insane exclaimed, looking around their room, which looked like it was totally made out of gingerbread. Their mouths watered like crazy.

"I'm in heaven." Insane sighed.

"Well, since I'm the mature one, I'll just share this room with Tom." Danny said, entering a room and looking around. The whole room was decorated with stars, so it looked like Danny could sleep under the night sky. His eyes widened in amazement.

"Not bad, huh Danny?"

"WHA! Tom…how did you get here?!" Danny exclaimed, whizzing around and looking straight at Tom's grinning face. Apparently, Tom had already finished fixing Shadow up for now and had found out which floor their rooms were in.

"So, who's up for a vacation of fun?" Tom asked the gang, everybody grinned as they ran straight out of the hotel and down to where Shadow was. They all looked at Tom with confused expressions.

"Why are we here?" Tiffany asked.

"Check this out." Shadow said as it raised it's his hood and all its parts changed position. Instead of a hardtop coupe, Shadow had become a convertible top, big enough to fit the whole gang in it.

"Well, what are we waiting for? VROOM VROOM!" Insane exclaimed as he jumped into Shadow, the rest of the gang followed and Shadow drove away from the hotel and around Sydney.

"OOH! ANOTHER SHINY BUTTON!" Cubby exclaimed as he leaned in front and pushed the radio button once again. As Shadow took the gang across Sydney, a song blasted out of its radio. (A/N: This one goes to the tune of Vacation by Guttermouth)

**Danny never wanted to be in charge  
Shadow never wanted to be a big car  
I was always told if I worked real hard  
I'd always be a sucker  
And my life would pass me  
Take a minute to stop and listen  
Not everything I do has reason  
I'm not always gonna get things right  
The mistakes I've made  
They're gonna get paid**

Everyone arrived at the beach right beside the hotel. Hui Hua sat beneath a beach umbrella reading yet another book. Cubby decided that this was the perfect time to tick her off, so he ran towards her and thrust the book out of her hands. Hui Hua stood up and mercilessly chased the Red Panda.

Meanwhile, Ali, Insane and Dedodakes were speeding around on Water-scooters. They stopped as they saw Tiffany surfing on a huge wave. She got shocked and tumbled off the surfboard as Jake flew beside her. As she popped out of the water, she glared at the angel and dunked his head underneath the waves.

Meanwhile, Hui Hua and Dixon were burying a certain screaming Red Panda in the sand, and they were planning to leave him there.

**  
I need a vacation  
A holiday in the sun  
I need a vacation  
with you**

Later, the gang was out in the water with a bunch of canoes. Ali sat in her canoe looking incredibly bored. She then whistled loudly, attracting her friends' attention. Suddenly, dolphins plunged out of the water and swam towards her canoe. Satisfied, Ali jumped into the waves and played with her aquatic friends.

After a few seconds, she urged her friends to jump in and join the dolphins. Everyone did. 'What harm would there be?' Cubby thought as he jumped in along with everyone else. Soon, a dolphin was swimming rapidly after him, trying to bite his tail off.

**Try to stop but please don't dare me  
Tom has gas and he's starting to scare me  
Two wrongs gonna make it right  
Do it my way all night long  
Listen to the ramblings Cubby says now  
Gonna write my own book to live now  
I'm liking the way that I can live my life**

Then the gang was rollerblading in one of the parks. Insane and Dedodakes couldn't help slamming into each other constantly. Tiffany slowly tried to stand up, but fell on her butt several times. Hui Hua and Dixon noticed this, went over and laughed in her face.

Tiffany frowned as she raised her leg and tripped both of her friends, making them fall on their butts. Dixon was the first one to stand up. Cubby then clumsily skated over and accidentally tripped over him. Dixon sighed as he pushed his imaginary friend off.

**I need a vacation  
A holiday in the sun  
I need a vacation  
with you**

As Shadow drove across the streets of Sydney, they stopped at a red light. A bright red Ferrari 360 Modena suddenly pulled out beside him. The driver smirked at Tom, wanting to race him. Tom accepted as Shadow sped off down the road, front tires screeching from the sudden rush of power. The whole gang held on to their seats, Dixon grabbed Cubby as he almost flew out of Shadow. A faint whistle was heard under Shadow's hood as the turbocharger spooled up.

**Try to stop but please don't dare me  
Insane, Dedodakes and Ali scare me  
Two wrongs gonna make it right  
My way all night long  
Try to stop but please don't dare me  
Doing wrong but the cops don't scare me  
Two wrongs gonna make it right  
Do it my way all night long  
****Listen to the ramblings Cubby says now  
Gonna write my own book to live now  
I'm liking the way that I can live my life**

Everybody was at an amusement park. They were all sat in a roller coaster, as the roller coaster loop-de-looped and made everyone sick to their stomachs, Tom was bored. When the roller coaster stopped, everyone's hair was pretty much sticking up. Sky turned over to look at Tom, to see that he was almost about to fall asleep.

**I need a vacation  
A holiday in the sun  
I need a vacation  
with you**

"That was SO COOL!" Dixon exclaimed to his friends.

"I definitely agree." Sky told him.

"ME TOO, ME TOO!" Insane, Ali and Dedodakes shouted. Everybody headed up to the hotel and up to their floor. As they were about to go out of the elevator, Tom stopped them.

"Guys, what do you think of coming to my suite to have dinner? My treat." He told them.

"Wait, wait, wait…you cook?" Jake asked him, surprised. Tom looked at him dully before smacking him on the head. Soon everybody was inside Tom's suite and at the dinner table.

"Hey Tif, you're not still thinking about that, are you?" Sky asked her.

"Thinking about what?" Dixon asked, then Sky looked at him with a questioning face. "Oh, that."

"Yes, I am. I can't just forget about it. It's hard!" Tiffany told them.

"I already told you, I still get to spend some time with you guys." Jake told her. "Look, I know that I'm going to go soon. But at least I can look at it in a positive way. If I have to leave Earth, then I guess I should just go without any regrets. I want to spend my last moments with all of you and that's what matters."

"Wait a second, last moments?" Ali asked.

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked Jake. He was just about to explain when Tom popped out of the kitchen.

"I need two brave volunteers to help me in this…" Tom told the group.

"OOH! ME, ME, ME!" Cubby exclaimed and ran towards Tom, who was currently sorry that he had asked that question. Tom scanned his friends, waiting for one more to volunteer.

"You go, I'll explain everything to them." Sky told Tiffany. She stood up and walked towards the kitchen. Sky then turned towards Ali, Insane, Dedodakes and Danny and explained exactly what was going to happen to Jake.

"WHAT?! NO! You can't leave!" Ali exclaimed.

"We only just started to know you!" Dedodakes shouted.

"NOOO! WHO AM I SUPPOSED TO ELECTRIFY NOW?!" Insane bellowed.

"Jake, you can't be serious…" Danny told him. Jake just gave them a weak smile to his friends. That was a fact that everybody had to face. He was going to go…forever.

"Push the button, push the button, push the button…" Cubby muttered to Tiffany from inside the kitchen.

"Cubby, are you sure? Tom told us not to touch the microwave, especially with his beef inside." Tiffany told Cubby.

"Do it! Do it! Do it!" Cubby chanted.

"Ok, fine…what harm could it do?" Tiffany asked as she pushed the button.

"What are you guys do-" Tom muttered.

The people outside the hotel all looked up at the window of the suite as they heard an explosion coming from the room.


	12. Chapter 12

BOOOOOM! The kitchen shook as the microwave exploded, covering Tiffany, Cubby, and Tom in bits and pieces of beef.

"What was that? Let's go see what went wrong." Sky said calmly as everyone got up to see what exploded in the kitchen.

Everyone stopped when they saw a big black crater in the counter where the microwave had been. Tom's face was red with anger. Tiffany and Cubby exchanged guilty looks.

Cubby's face suddenly lit up as he laughed "Microwave go boom!"

Tom got even angrier at that. As Tom grew angrier, the rest of the undestroyed electronics in the room started turning on and off as the lights flickered. Tom looked like he was about to explode.

"Everyone. Out. Of. The. Kitchen." Tom said as calmly as he could trying not to raise his voice.

Everyone but Danny immediately obeyed, not wanting to find out the consequences of staying. As soon as everyone left the room, Tom moved his hand in a manner that looked like he was pushing something down. As he did this, The electronics and lights returned to normal as he calmed down.

Tom carefully took the pieces of beef off him and threw it in the garbage. Tom was expecting something like that to happen so he had set up a slow cooker before they had gone out for fun. Tom grabbed the slow cooker, lifted the lid, and checked on the pot roast inside. It was done and fully cooked, and miraculously unburnt. Tom pulled out a platter and set it next to the slow cooker.

Finally noticing Danny was there, Tom asked, "Danny could you take the pot roast out while I finish the potatoes and get the gravy ready?"

Danny did as asked and took the pot roast out of the slow cooker and put it on the platter while Tom took a pot off the stove and draining the water out of it, revealing fully cooked potatoes. Tom put the potatoes in a large bowl and went over to the slow cooker. Tom picked it up carefully and poured the beef broth into a small pot on the stove and proceeded to make the gravy. Danny, meanwhile, was putting the corn on the cob into a bowl.

Danny decided to break the ice. "So where did you learn to cook like that?" ,Danny asked.

Tom smiled "When my dad was in high school, he wanted to be a chef and trained to be one, but life got in the way when he joined the army. Years later I was born, and he started teaching me how to cook. I've been told I can be a chef if I wanted to, but my heart belongs to racing."

Meanwhile in the dining room...

"NOT MY FAULT!"

Everyone glared at Cubby, Tiffany was still trying to pick off the bits and pieces of beef out of her hair. She looked off into space, she wasn't exactly concentrating on anything.

"So um…" Dixon said after a while. "How did you guys meet anyway?"

"Huh?" Tiffany snapped back into reality.

"How did you meet Jake?" Dixon asked. But he knew the answer, one day an angel of light just turns up where a person would go most of their time. In Tiffany's case, it was in her bedroom, and it was completely unexpected…

_8 year old Tiffany came home after a long, tiring day of school. She had been constantly made fun of in Directly Proportional Elementary school and she was sick of it. She came to the conclusion that there was nobody looking out for her, and nobody ever would._

"_Hi!"_

_Tiffany turned around and looked at the source of the voice. A glowing boy, about her age, was standing in the middle of her bedroom staring at her like a dork._

"You must've been glad that Jake came to your rescue, right?" Hui Hua asked Tiffany.

"Um…well…" Jake began.

"_AAH! GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"_

_Jake's eyes widened in surprise as a dictionary was thrown at him. He turned back to the crazy girl to see her unloading her school bag and throwing everything she could find in there at the surprised angel._

"_What are you doing?!" Jake exclaimed._

"_GET AWAY! GO! SHOO!" Tiffany exclaimed, dropping her schoolbag once it was empty and ran out of her room and out of the house, screaming like a maniac. Jake rolled his eyes as he went after her._

"Wow…harsh." Sky told her.

"Tell me about it." Jake glared at Tiffany.

"That's totally different to how we met, right Hui Hua?" Sky asked her. Hui Hua nodded, she remembered everything like it happened a few moments ago, it started when she was just 10…

_10 year old Hui Hua sat there reading another book. 3 huge kids came up to her and knocked her off her feet. She scrambled for he glasses as the kids laughed cruelly at her._

"_Hey! Leave her alone!"_

_The kids turned around to see another girl coming closer to them. They rolled their eyes, ignoring her warning and went back to picking on Hui Hua. The figure then pushed all the kids aside, making them all collide on the floor. They looked at the figure in awe._

"_I told you to leave her alone."_

_The kids looked at the figure with shocked faces, before scrambling to their feet and taking off without a word. Once Hui Hua found her glasses, she took one look at the girl who saved her behind._

"_Who are you?" She asked the kid._

"_Your angel of light, now come on. It's time for class." Sky told her, helping her up and into the building just as the school bell rang._

"OUR STORY! OUR STORY!"

"Yeah, how did you get Cubby in the first place?" Jake asked Dixon.

"Well…it was a pretty weird, funny, interesting…" Dixon began, everyone just stared at him with dull looks, begging the boy to get on with his story.

"_I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored…"_

_12 year old Dixon walked along the streets, dizzily swaying back and forth. Every day was the same to him, nothing exciting happened. There was no excitement, no adventure, nothing._

"_AAAH!" Cubby exclaimed, jumping out from a bush and landing right on Dixon's face._

"_WHAT THE?!" Dixon shouted, grabbing Cubby off his face. Suddenly two huge shadows came closer and closer to him, both as horrifying as all the nightmares he had ever had in his life combined._

"So what did you do?" Ali asked.

"Long story short, I kicked their butts." Dixon smiled.

"Dixon ran away like big baby! Me follow!" Cubby exclaimed, Dixon glared at him.

"We've been together ever since…" Dixon told them, then he looked at Insane and Dedodakes.

"How about you two? You guys both have the same powers, but you're not related." Dixon told them. Insane and Dedodakes explained that both of them had been best friends for as long as they could remember, then one day…

"_I dare you to go up that power pole." Dedodakes grinned._

"_No way, I'll get killed!" Insane exclaimed._

_The two 5 year olds were standing in front of a huge power pole. Dedodakes reached inside her pocket and grabbed 10 bucks out of it. Insane's eyes widened._

"_I'll do it!" He exclaimed as he started to climb the pole. As he reached the top, he looked down. Dedodakes seemed so far away and there was no way that he was going to climb down at this height._

"_Um…Dedodakes…help!" Insane exclaimed._

"_What?" Dedodakes looked up at her friend._

"_I'm stuck!" Insane exclaimed. "HELP ME!"_

"_Ok, ok…I got you…" Dedodakes told him as she climbed up the pole as well. Once she had reached him, she grabbed on to his leg and started to tug._

"_Now get down, you big baby." Dedodakes told him._

"_STOP! I'M SLIPPING!" Insane exclaimed._

"_No you're not, now just climb down!" Dedodakes shouted, but then Insane lost his grip and started to fall. Luckily, he grabbed one of the power lines, which held both him and Dedodakes up._

_Suddenly, a strong electric shock hit them both. Insane lost his grip and fell towards the ground, but before both of them hit the ground, electricity suddenly surged from their bodies and a wave of energy rushed out from underneath them and broke their fall._

"That blast gave us superpowers…and it increased our hyper level 25!" Dedodakes told the group.

"YAY FOR HYPERNESS!" Insane cheered.

"After all that drama, Dixon, Hui Hua and I attended Inversely Proportional high and met each other there. We don't need to explain how we met you three." Tiffany told Ali, Insane and Dedodakes.

"Best cruise ever." Dixon said.

"Yeah…" Everyone sighed, but then realized one thing. Tom and Danny were taking a really long time with their food…

…and they were hungry.

Tom Finished whipping the mashed potatoes with the electric mixer, making sure there were no lumps. Satisfied, Tom started to bring in the food. As he put it on the table, he started slapping hands away and told them to wait a little bit longer.

A few moments later, Danny and Tom finished bringing in the food and sat down at the table.

"Dig in!" Tom said with a smirk.

The hungry teens didn't need to be told twice and dug into the prepared food greedily.

"Mmmm, Tom. This is good. Where'd you learn to cook like this?" asked Dixon before stuffing his mouth with more of the pot roast

"My dad wanted to be a chef when he was younger. He never became a chef, but he taught me everything he knew." Tom told them. "I've been told I could be a great chef if I wanted to, but my heart belongs to racing."

An hour and a half later, everyone finished eating; their stomachs full, appetites filled. Dedodakes and Insane were surprisingly calm. Cubby had no more random rantings to say. Tom got up, grabbed the plates and proceeded to put them in the dishwasher.

Tom popped his head back into the dining room. "Okay, you've imposed enough, eaten my food, and destroyed our kitchen. Go to your own rooms" Tom said jokingly with a smile.

Everyone except Danny and Tom left, spilling out 'see ya tomorrows'. Tom smiled at Danny before grabbing a towel and dashing into the bathroom to take a shower. 10 minutes later, Tom came out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his waist and ushered Danny into the bathroom. Tom changed into a pair of light blue pajamas and jump in bed, sleeping the moment his head hit the pillow.


	13. Chapter 13

The sun rose up above the city of Sydney as the gang arranged to group together at a seaside restaurant just outside the hotel for breakfast. Nobody in the gang were really morning people, so when it was the actual time for everyone to group together, only two people were awake and walking towards the restaurant.

"Great, everyone overslept again. I really don't get what's the point of making them set alarm clocks when they're just gonna ignore them." Ali told Sky.

"I know, normally I have to hit Hui Hua on the head with a pillow ten times before she decides to wake up...then she starts chasing me around the room with death threats." Sky grinned.

"Yeah...Tiffany didn't look so great as she fell asleep. I mean, she took forever in the bathroom and she stayed up at least one hour until dozing off." Ali told Sky.

"Hui Hua didn't look too good either...it's probably because Jake's leaving. That's why nobody can concentrate anymore." Sky said.

"True...but what can we do to get their minds off it?" Ali asked, worried about her friends. Suddenly, she crashed into a wall. Sky started laughing hysterically and stopped as Ali glared at her. She looked at the wall again and saw a poster.

"That's it!" She exclaimed.

"What's it?" Sky asked.

"That!" Ali shouted, turning Sky's head to look at the poster.

"Wha...oh, that'll do." Sky smirked.

Half an hour later, everyone else groggily came up to the restaurant and sat down at a table. Sky and Ali then waited for everyone to wake up

before telling their friends of their discovery.

"Guys, check this out - I think you'll enjoy it." Ali told the gang.

"Enjoy the little waffle-muffins running around on ponies." Insane said, dizzily before slamming his head against the table. Sky rolled her eyes as she grabbed the poster from Ali and showed the group its details.

"The Battle of the Bands, it'll be fun!" Sky told her friends. Everyone just looked at her with dull expressions. "What? Ali - I know that you can play the drums, Hui Hua - you're awesome on the keyboard, Danny - you're great on the electric guitar, Jake - you sure know how to play bass and Tif, you can sing. See? It's perfect."

"While we're practicing, you guys can go help Tom out in his tournament. Train him to win!" Ali cheered. Everyone else just sleepily nodded in agreement.

After breakfast, everyone was enthusiastic and hyper once again. As they talked about the two events, the battle of the bands and Tom's tournament, almost the whole restaurant could hear the chattering from their table.

"Well, speaking of the tournament, I better qualify right now...I'll see you guys later." Tom told them.

"Oh...well, good luck!" Tiffany called after him.

"It's ok, I'm an awesome driver, I don't need luck!" Tom exclaimed proudly.

Later at the sign-up...

Tom drove to the drag strip with the directions he printed online. He got to the track and proceeded to a tale with a sign labeled "Australian Outback 1/4 Mile Tourney sign-ups here". Tom signed the list and labeled his vehicle entry as "'Shadow' 1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Z34". He put it in the box labeled "sign-ups only". 5 minutes later, an man in his 40's came, picked up the box and stated "The sign-ups are closed, Qualifying begins in 20 minutes," and with that, the man walked of with the box.

Tom looked up at the leaderboard they were using to tell who was going up against who in the qualifying rounds 15 minutes later. Tom looked and saw he was going up against someone named 'Bruno Von Stickle' and going before someone named 'Claude Gilbert' (A/N "Herbie goes to Monte Carlo" movie reference) in Heat number 2. Tom looked and saw two drivers walking up to him as he sat on Shadow's hood.

"You must be Tom. I'm Bruno Von Stickle and this is Claude Gilbert." said a man with in his early 30's with messy dark brown hair, a mustache, and green eyes, and a French accent. The man, Bruno, took a look at Shadow and grimaced.

"You're seriously going to enter in that 'grandma car'?" asked Claude in a French accent.

Tom got mad as he looked at their cars, Bruno's orange and yellow Laser 917 (A/N a Laser 917 is a kit car based on the Porsche 917 race car), and Claude's black and white 1974 DeTomaso Pantera. Shadow, sensing a brewing argument, turned on the radio. (A/N I do not own "Real Gone" by Sheryl Crow)

_**I'm American-made, bought a large Chevrolet**_

_**My momma taught me wrong from right**_

_**I was born in the South**_

_**Sometimes I have a big mouth**_

_**when I see something that I don't like**_

_**I gotta say it**_

"At least I'm entering with a real car, and not with some stupid European accent and an ugly-as-sin kit car!" Tom said. Bruno and Claude's faces turned red as they had just been insulted majorly by a teenager, and walked away in a huff.

_**Well we've been driving this road for a mighty long time**_

_**Payin' no mind to the signs**_

_**Well this neighborhood's changed**_

_**It's all been rearranged**_

_**We left that change somewhere behind**_

Tom watched the qualifying heat 1 cars make their trips down the track, judging how hard the other competitors would be to beat. So far none seemed too hard. Tom headed to Shadow as they called qualifying heat 2 cars to the inspection area.

_**Slow down, you're gonna crash**_

_**Baby you were screamin'**_

_**It's a blast blast blast**_

_**Well look out babe, you got your blinders on**_

_**Everybody's lookin' for a way to get real gone, real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

Shadow sat there as they finished the inspection. Miraculously, he passed with flying colors. Tom then drove shadow to the line of Heat 2 cars behind the starting grid. Tom looked at Bruno's Laser next to him. Bruno brought his hand up to his throat and pretended to cut his head off with it.

_**But there's a new cat in town**_

_**He's got high-paid friends**_

_**thinks he's gonna change history**_

_**You think you know him so well**_

_**Yeah you think he's so swell**_

_**But he's just perpetuatin' prophecy**_

_**Come on now**_

Finally, it was Tom and Bruno's turn to qualify. They started their burnouts, Bruno's Laser lighting up his rear tires while Shadow's front tires screeched leaving a cloud of tire smoke. They staged their cars and watched the staging light.

_**Slow down, you're gonna crash**_

_**Baby you were screamin'**_

_**It's a blast blast blast**_

_**Well look out, you got your blinders on**_

_**Everybody's lookin' for a way **_

_**to get real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

They watched the lights change. Red, yellow, yellow, yellow, Green. GO! Both cars leapt off the starting line, tires screeching for traction, while the car's front ends leapt in the air from the sudden power rush.

_**Well, you can say what you want**_

_**but you can't say it round here**_

_**'cause they'll catch you and give you a whippin'**_

_**Well I believe I was right**_

_**When I said you were wrong**_

_**You didn't like the sound of that**_

_**Now didja?**_

Bruno's Laser shot ahead off the starting line. Tom floored the gas pedal and Shadow started creeping up on the Laser 917 as the black Chevy caught traction.

_**Slow down, you're gonna crash**_

_**Baby you were screamin'**_

_**It's a blast blast blast**_

_**Well look out, you got your blinders on**_

_**Everybody's lookin' for a way to get real gone**_

Shadow slowly crept up to the kit car until they were neck and neck. Shadow slowly pulled ahead, turbocharger whistling away.

_**Well here I come and I'm so not scared**_

_**Got my pedal to the metal**_

_**Got my hands in the air**_

_**Well look out, you take your blinders off**_

_**Everybody's lookin' for a way to get real gone, real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

_**Real gone**_

The song ended as Shadow crossed the finish line, beating the orange Laser by a whole second. Tom slammed on the brakes and returned to the inspection booth to see if he qualified. He looked at the leaderboard to check his 1/4 mile time. "11.65 seconds 115MPH". "That's the fastest you've ever moved Shadow. I guess those recent tune-ups paid off" Tom told the black coupe, dumbfounded by his time.

"That's it, kid. You've gone too far!" Bruno exclaimed, walking up to Tom and glaring at him. Tom's expression didn't change, he didn't say a word. Bruno turned around, fuming in anger."What a jerk. We showed him anyway!""Tell me about it, but if we want to compete, we have to ignore all distractions." Tom said, walking off beside Shadow. Suddenly, somebody bumped into him, he turned around in frustration."Watch where you're going, you...you..." Tom exclaimed angrily, before looking at the person he had bumped into."Ignore all distractions, eh?" Shadow sighed.

Tom looked at who he bumped into. She was about his age with short dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a light green "Spice Girls" T-shirt and hip-hugging blue jeans. Her hairstyle reminded Tom of apples for some reason. Tom's heart skipped a beat for the first time since he saw Jessica.

She shyly replied, "I'm so sorry. I really should know where I'm going. Are you okay?"

Tom was the shy one now. "Uhhh... oh! yeah, I'm okay. Sorry about that. I'm Tom by the way." Tom managed to get out.

She smiled, "I'm Ally. I just got here a few hours ago and I don't know where anything is." Ally looked at Shadow, "Nice car,"

"Uhh... thanks. It's name is 'Shadow'." Tom got nervous as he popped the question, "Soo... ummm... would you like to go out with me sometime? I could show you around, get you used to the surroundings, and we could hang out with my friends."

Ally rubbed her chin as she considered going out with a boy she barely knew. "Sure, Well since qualifying's pretty much over, do you wanna hang out? Show me around a bit and maybe meet those friends of yours?"

"Sure. Just hop in." Tom said motioning to Shadow as he walked to the driver's side.

"Um...is it safe?" Ally asked.

"Oh please, girl. You're sounding like a Disney movie about now."

"Who said that?" Ally jumped as she looked around for the source of the voice. Tom laughed as he waited for Ally to enter the car.

"I'll explain on the way. Now come on." Tom told her. She shrugged as she hopped into the car and took off along with Tom. This boy seemed different than any other guy she had met, it was a sure feeling.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel...

"Are you ready?" Jake asked his friends.

"Yeah, let's see it!" Everybody exclaimed. Jake had lugged everyone up to the top floor of the hotel, everyone waited impatiently for Jake to open the door that they were standing in front of.

Jake smirked as he pushed the door open. Everybody gasped as they laid eyes on a giant stage, Tiffany turned to Jake in amazement.

"What the? Jake - how did you find this?" Tiffany asked.

"I explore in my spare time." Jake smirked. He heard Shadow's engine rev from below the hotel. Everyone gathered up to the roof side to see Tom crawl out of the car.

"Tom's back! Tom's back!" Cubby exclaimed.

"Wait a second, who's that with him?" Ali asked.

"I sense a disturbance in the force..." Hui Hua muttered as they watched Tom help Ally out Shadow.


	14. Chapter 14

Tom walked Ally through the hotel, checking his friends' rooms to see if they were there. Everyone else had snuck out of the hotel after Jake's stage discovery, and were having fun at the beach across the street. Tom realized his friends weren't at the hotel after checking their rooms, so he and Ally went to the beach to have some fun.

Tom and Ally walked onto the beach and found his friends playing volleyball. They stopped playing as soon as the spotted Tom and his 'new friend'. They walked up to Tom with un-naturally big smiles.

"Hi Tom! Who's your friend?" asked Jake

"Hi guys. This is Ally. We met at just after the qualifying rounds ended. I was going to show her around since she's new and I wanted to know if you guys wanted to come with us?" Tom told them.

Ally held out her hand for a handshake with a friendly smile. Danny, sensing an opportunity to tell her not to mess with them without words went to grab her hand for the handshake with a glint in his eye. Ally saw the glint in his eyes and shook his hand in a vice-grip. Danny yelped in pain as he watched Ally carefully. Tom was chuckling at Danny's expense.

"Nah. we've got plans today. Your name is Ally? My name is Ali too" said Ali excited.

"Oh great. Two Aly's..." muttered Jake under his breath.

"Well, we gotta go then. Seeya!" Tom called as he ran off with Ally.

"Hmm... that was weird." said Tiffany

"What was weird, Tif?" asked Jake.

"Her thoughts were impossibly well guarded. I couldn't tell what she was thinking." Said Tiffany.

"Then I say we follow Tom and 'Ally' and see if we can find out if she's another Jessica." said Ali.

"AAH! Jessica, where?!" Cubby exclaimed. Everyone just glared at him.

"Cubby, we're not exactly sure...plus, she seems pretty nice." Hui Hua told him.

"Yeah, that's what we thought about that she-witch on the cruise. Until she decided to hypnotize most of us." Dedodakes told them.

"Hey, I tried spying on Sam on one of her 'date's before, it blew up in my face." Danny told them.

"But this is TOM we're talking about! I say we do it, for his sake." Ali said.

"I'm in." Jake said.

"Me too, I have to make sure that I can trust this girl before Tom pals around with her." Tiffany told her friends.

"Eh - I like spying on people, so I'll go along as well!" Insane exclaimed.

"Well, good luck guys. The rest of us would still be here...feeling sorry for you when Tom finds out." Sky told them.

"He's not going to find out, there's no way that we'll give ourselves away." Jake told them.

"TOM! YAY! I'M GOING TO SPY ON HIM! HE'LL BE SO HAPPY!" Cubby exclaimed happily, Jake stared at him in shock before pushing him towards

Dixon.

"Yeah...I think you guys better keep him under control."

As half the gang ran off after Tom and Ally, the rest of them stood there on the beach. They knew that this plan was going to go up in flames, and unfortunately they couldn't do anything to stop them.

Tom and Ally took off, not wanting anymore awkwardness with his friends. Somehow, they ended up at a little Italian Gelato shop (A/N Gelato is Italian for ice cream. It has about three times the sugar of American ice cream.). Tom and Ally were having a great time together laughing and talking about past experiences. But unknown to them, they were being watched and followed. Tom went to pay for their gelato's, but Ally beat him to it.

"Please. It's the least I can do with you showing me around today." Ally said with a smile.

"Fine. I guess there's no point in arguing without being called a caveman" Tom said sarcastically.

"Is it me or did your friends not like me very much?" asked Ally

"They're just a little cautious. Let's just say the last girl I went out with took control of the situation" Tom said, laughing.

"Sounds like your last girlfriend didn't allow you too much freedom." said Ally

"You have no idea..." Tom told her with a serious look.

They finished their gelato's and went to a mall they found. Ally dragged him to 4 different shoe stores before Tom cried "Enough with the shoes." They walked around for a while in a seemingly impenetrable bubble of happiness.

Meanwhile, hiding in the background...

"She doesn't seem evil, Tif. It looks like Tom picked a nice girl for once." said Jake

"Oh please. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. We just have to find out where her closet is." said Tiffany, determined.

"Yeah. What Tif said" said Ali, feeling left out.

"Well I say it's just an act. We need to keep a closer eye on her." Dedodakes told them

"I say she's a murderer in disguise!" exclaimed Insane.

"Really?" asked Tiffany

"No. I just like messing with your heads" said Insane. Ali slapped him hard across the head.

While watching Tom, Ally turned around while walking and saw them. 'Oh crud' thought Tiffany

Ally turned around and saw some of Tom's friends from the beach.

"Hey aren't those your friends?" asked Ally, pointing straight at Tom's friends. Tom looked and suddenly his calm demeanor was gone.

"Oh are they in for it." said Tom angrily as he walked over to them, Ally in tow. Tom walked straight up to Tiffany.

"How could you guys do this to me? Just because my last relationship didn't pan out doesn't give you the right to spy on me!" Tom half-screamed.

"Who says we were spying on you? Maybe we wanted to go shopping!" Tiffany said nervously.

"It's that obvious?" said Dedodakes. Everyone glared at her.

"Tom..." Ali started, but Tom interrupted her

"Save it for someone who cares Ali. I can't believe you would do this to me! You know what Ally; let's get out of here where we can't be bothered." Tom told them

"But, Tom..." Ally began, but he ignored her protests as he took her hand and pulled her angrily away from his so called 'friends'.

Tiffany was certain that Ally had taken full control of Tom. Sure, they all did betray his trust by staring on him, but Tom should've been more careful about those people he dated.

"I'm sorry; if I didn't interfere this wouldn't have happened."

Tiffany's eyes widened in shock, that came straight from Ally's head. That was what she had thought...she was sorry.

"Tif, what are you thinking about?" Ali asked her.

"Ally isn't all bad." Tiffany told her.

"What? Did you see her! She totally mind-controlled Tom!" Insane exclaimed.

"You wouldn't be saying that about her once you heard what she recently thought." Tiffany told her friends.

"What? What'd she say? What'd she say?" Dedodakes asked.

Meanwhile, Tom and Ally were sitting down in yet another shop. Each of them had a hot dog in their hands. Ally took small looks at Tom's fuming, disappointed face, before finally putting her hot dog down and looking straight at him.

"Tom!" She shouted.

"What? Where's the fire?" Tom asked.

"You can't do that to them!" Ally exclaimed. Tom looked at her in surprise, his friends didn't trust her, they rejected her and they betrayed his

trust by coming to spy on them. How could this girl be standing up for them?

"They're your friends! The only reason they came after you was to make sure you were ok." Ally told him.

"They didn't have to spy on me, I'm not a kid." Tom told her.

"But by the way you're acting, I could say you are." Ally sighed; Tom looked straight into her eyes, demanding further explanation.

"Tom, you're a great guy. You're all a girl could pretty much want; you just have to trust that your friends are doing the best for you." Ally told him. "Work on that."

Ally stood up and walked away from the restaurant, Tom then stood up from his seat.

"Ally, wait! Where are you going?" Tom asked.

"I'm giving you some time alone. You have to sort this out by yourself. Nobody else can solve this for you." Ally told him. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Tom watched as Ally walked off, and he considered her words carefully. 'You're all a girl could pretty much want; you just have to trust that your friends are doing the best for you...'

Tom thought for about five minutes before realizing he did his best thinking when he was driving. He walked out of the shop and stuck his hand in the pocket of his black jeans, searching for Shadow's keys. He found them and went off to find Shadow. After a few minutes of walking, he found Shadow, jumped in and took off. Smoke billowed out of the front wheel drive muscle car's wheel-wells as he took off, leaving his tire tracks imprinted on the pavement.


	15. Chapter 15

Tom drove around for awhile, venting out his anger by leaving tread marks at every stoplight he came across. After 20 minutes of him calming down so he could think clearly, he noticed the digital clock flashed "5:08PM". Shadow realized Tom had calmed down enough so he could think clearly, and turned on the radio, playing a song to help in making his decision. (A/N. I do NOT own "The Great Escape" by Boys like Girls) The rock song blared as Tom started to think...

_**Paper bags and plastic hearts**__**  
**__**All are belongings in shopping carts**__**  
**__**It's goodbye**__**  
**__**But we got one more night**__**  
**__**Let's get drunk and ride around**__**  
**__**And make peace with an empty town**__**  
**__**We can make it right**_

Maybe Ally was right. They're my friends and they only wanted to make sure she wasn't another Jessica. 'Jessica" I hate that name now. Focus!

_**Throw it away**__**  
**__**Forget yesterday**__**  
**__**We'll make the great escape**__**  
**__**We won't hear a word they say**__**  
**__**They don't know us anyway**__**  
**__**Watch it burn**__**  
**__**Let it die**__**  
**__**Cause we are finally free tonight**_

They only want what's best for me, they spied on me for a reason...but they violated my privacy, why couldn't they just leave me to my life?

**_Tonight will change our lives_**_**  
**_**_It's so good to be by your side_**_**  
**_**_But we'll cry_**_**  
**_**_We won't give up the fight_**_**  
**_**_We'll scream loud at the top of our lungs_**_**  
**_**_And they'll think it's just cause we're young_**_**  
**_**_And we'll feel so_****_alive_**

They're just looking out for me, but Ally's not Jessica. I doubt that she even has superpowers. I can't stay mad at them forever, they need me...and I need them.

**_Throw it away_**_**  
**_**_Forget yesterday_**_**  
**_**_We'll make the great escape_**_**  
**_**_We won't hear a word they say_**_**  
**_**_They don't know us anyway_**_**  
**_**_Watch it burn_**_**  
**_**_Let it die_**_**  
**_**_Cause we are finally free tonight_**

No! I don't need them! I don't need friends who would want to betray my trust like them! Wait a second, what am I thinking? Of course I do...

_**All of the wasted time**__**  
**__**The hours that were left behind**__**  
**__**The answers that we'll never find**__**  
**__**They don't mean a thing tonight**_

They're like family to me, if I lost them I couldn't forgive myself...

_**Throw it away**__**  
**__**Forget yesterday**__**  
**__**We'll make the great escape**__**  
**__**We won't hear a word they say**__**  
**__**They don't know us anyway**_

I should just let it go, they're my friends. Friends stick with each other, they look out for each other...just like they looked out for me.

_**Throw it away**__**  
**__**Forget yesterday**__**  
**__**We'll make the great escape**__**  
**__**We won't hear a word they say**__**  
**__**They don't know us anyway**_

When I was on the cruise, they included me, they treated me like a true friend. When Jessica hypnotized me, they broke me out of her spell. They're not my enemies...

_**Throw it away**__**  
**__**Forget yesterday**__**  
**__**We'll make the great escape**__**  
**__**We won't hear a word they say**__**  
**__**They don't know us anyway**__**  
**__**Watch it burn**__**  
**__**Let it die**__**  
**__**Cause we are finally free tonight**_

They're my friends...

Tom realized that just as the song ended. He slammed on the brakes as the W-body muscle car skidded to a halt, miraculously parallel parking itself by the sidewalk. Tom slowly looked where he was. He looked at the building next to Shadow. Tom got out of Shadow and walked in.

3 hours later…

All, but Tom were in Danny's hotel room waiting for Tom to come back. It had been 3 hours since he ran off fuming. Danny had rubbed it in their faces that he was right and they were wrong.

"Where is he?" said Ali, worried

"Maybe he's not coming back. I mean, he WAS pretty pissed." said Tiffany

They heard the click of the door opening. They all watch as Tom, literally, stumbled in.

"Tom, we're sorry! Please, forgive us!" Ali exclaimed. He just looked at her with a goofy smile.

"Hiya banana lady." He smiled. Ali just looked at him in shock and confusion.

"Banana lady? Tom, are you ok?" Insane came up to him, but Tom just grabbed his hand.

"You're very beautiful, miss. Marry me!" He shouted. Insane pulled his hand away in disgust.

"I'm straight! I'm straight!" Insane yelled. Jake came up and looked at Tom in concern. But once Tom saw him,

he headed straight for him, backing the poor angel up against a wall.

"There you are! You're the angel that was supposed to be on top of my Christmas tree!" Tom shouted.

"I...uh-excuse me?" Jake asked.

"You've been missing for 2 years, you...you...monkey pie!" Tom exclaimed.

"What's wrong with him?" Sky whispered to Tiffany, who shrugged.

Tom smiled drunkenly as he put his arms around Ali and Tiffany, bringing them in for a hug.

"I love you guys...Hey! Where's the pink beetle?" Tom said, slurring his words.

Tom leaned his head on Tiffany and started to drool.

"AHHH!! HE"S DROOLING ON ME!" Tiffany screeched, trying to push Tom's head over to Ali.

"Hello miss pretty poofy sparkly pink prince pageant! Are you ready to POP?" Tom said, making it through the tongue twister.

Tiffany smelled Tom's breath. "I think I know what's wrong with him. He's drunk!" Tiffany stated. Spitting out the last word like it was venom.

"Apparently he made use of the lower legal drinking age. Ya know, I'm starting to enjoy this." said Hui Hua as Tiffany sent her death-glares.

"Say cheese!" Everyone was blinded as Jake pulled out a camera and started taking pictures.

"I like PINK!" Tom stated drunkenly before stumbling away from Tiffany and Ali.

"Yup, he's definitely drunk." Dixon said. "Well that explains everything."

Give me that!" Hui Hua exclaimed, taking the camera from Jake and bonking him on the head with it.

"Tom! Tom! Tom! Tom! Tom!" Cubby exclaimed.

"Cubby! Cubby! Cubby! Cubby! Cubby!" Tom replied.

"You know what day it is?!" Cubby exclaimed.

"A day attributed to Green eggs and ham, do I get a cookie now?" Tom asked.

"YAY! COOKIE!" Cubby exclaimed as he watched Tom stagger off, everyone just looked at him in confusion.

"To you guys it might seem like nonsense, but to me, Tom was explaining the basic theory of how the Earth revolves around its axis. ISN'T THAT GREAT?!" Cubby exclaimed to the group, their eyes all widened in surprise.

A knock then sounded at the door, Tiffany then answered it to see Ally standing on the outside. Her smile immediately dropped when she saw that the person who answered wasn't Tom.

"Look, I'm so sorry about what happen today! I promise I'll make it up to you! I know that you want Tom to be ok, but you can trust me. I swear, I would never do anything to hurt him!" Ally exclaimed. Tiffany just stood there smiling.

"I know, it's ok, I trust you." Tiffany told her.

"Wow, it seems that you can really read my mind." Ally said, Tiffany laughed.

"Tell me about it." She smirked; Tom then went up to Ally and stared at her dreamily. Ally just looked at him in surprise.

"Wow, you're pur-ty, you must come from somewhere over the rainbow where the munchkins run all over the place poking each other!" Tom said in a sing-song voice. Ally just looked at him, speechless.

"Wha... What happened to him?" asked Ally obviously confused.

"Well... he came back a few minutes ago... drunk." Tiffany explained.

Ally watched her boyfriend drunkenly stumble around the room, saying random things, pal-ing around, and looking like he was about to collapse any second. Ally fell to her knees and started crying.

"IT'S ALL MY FAULT! I shouldn't have left him at the hot dog stand!" Ally stated as she balled.

Tiffany laid a comforting hand on Ally's shoulder. "It's not your fault. He was bound to take advantage of the lower drinking age here

sooner or later."

"I guess you're right. At least he isn't hurting anyone." Ally stated, trying to look on the bright side.

"You mean physically. I think he mentally scarred Insane earlier." Tiffany said as she pointed to Insane, who was running around screaming "I'm straight. I'm straight!"

"I don't even wanna know." Ally said as she chuckled.

"I guess I'll leave now. You guys better be prepared for when he wakes up tomorrow though." Ally said as she left.

Tom stumbled as he walked around the hotel suite. Tom collapsed on the bed and was soon snoring peacefully; little drool puddles forming on the bed.

"Ya know, he kinda looks cute and peaceful when he's not causing destruction." Dedodakes said as she watched Tom sleep peacefully.

"You think that drool is cute?" asked Ali, confused.

"Not so much..."

They all left and went to their respective rooms for a good night's rest.

The next morning, they were all at the restaurant again for breakfast. They all stared as Tom walked towards the table, clutching his aching head. They were staring because Tom wasn't dressed in his usual gothic manner. He actually looked... normal. He still wore his small silver hoop earring, his two necklaces, and his light blue hoodie was still tied around his waist with the sleeves, but he wore white and blue sneakers in place of his old combat boots, regular blue jeans replace the black ones, and a plain light blue T-shirt.

"Ow. My aching head. What happened last night and why do I feel like I was hit by a truck?" Tom asked as he took his seat.

"You look as though you've been hit by a truck. What happened to your gothic self?" Danny asked.

"I just thought I needed a change of character." Tom smirked. "So really – what happened last night?"

Everyone just smiled innocently, Insane looked at him, still mentally disturbed and scarred as they continued with their breakfast. Tom was left in the dark about the whole incident…until much later.


	16. Chapter 16

_TiffanyPhantom: Sorry it took so long with this chapter, we got a little distracted while writing it._

Hey Tom!"

Tom turned to see Ally walking towards him and taking a seat next to him. He smiled at her.

"Hey...Ally..."

Everyone rolled their eyes, after all, love made everyone do stupid things. But they had already seen the effect it had on Tom last night.

"So um...happy valentines day." Tom muttered, not taking his eyes off her.

"Yeah...sure...happy valentines day." Ally smiled. Tiffany rolled her eyes and dug into her breakfast. Hui Hua and Sky chuckled softly.

"So how are you feeling today?" asked Ally in a concerned tone.

"I feel like I was hit by a semi." Tom stated with obvious truth behind his words.

Ally got a glint in her eyes that didn't go unnoticed. "Here, let me make it all better." she said as she leaned towards Tom and kissed him. The kiss then turned into a make-out session with everyone watching.

"UGH! Remind me never to become a hormonal teenager." said Hui Hua in a disgusted tone.

"Too late. You already are one." Danny told her earning a slap on the head

"It's official, I don't understand the fine art of dating." said Tiffany.

Jake smirked "And you never will."

Tom and Ally finally broke out of their make-out session.

"Better?" asked Ally

Tom had a glint in his eyes this time. "Hmmm... I can't tell. Let's try that again." Tom said as he moved in and started making out with Ally again.

They stopped immediately, as they heard a gagging noise in the background. As they turned to their friends, they could see all their horribly

disturbed expressions. Except for…

"AWW!" Deododakes and Insane exclaimed.

"So is this going in the photo album?" Insane asked, snapping a picture of them.

"Or is this gonna go in the 'precious moments' section in your diaries?" Dedodakes asked, pulling out a pen and paper. "I'll help!"

"Um...guys..." Ally started.

"I know, we can just skip right to the wedding!" Insane yelled.

"I'll get the cake!" Dedodakes shouted.

"I'll get the bridesmaids!" Insane exclaimed.

"GUYS! It's alright, Tom and I were just thinking of going out for a while." Ally told them.

"...Aww..." Insane and Dedodakes muttered.

"If you guys wanna live long enough to get your learner's permit, you'll drop the marriage talk!" Tom growled.

"Sadistic jerk." Insane grumbled.

Tom's face brightened. "Why thank you!" he said with a false smile, his voice coated with sarcasm.

"Hey, guys, listen to this..." Tiffany told the gang.

"What's going on?" Ali asked.

"Jake and Sky are gonna be together for a while, we're not sure how long..." Tiffany told them.

"But hold on a second - aren't you upset about Jake leaving as well?" Danny asked.

"Well...yeah...more than...but that's not the point!" Tiffany said. "The point is..."

"Your hair's a dead giveaway?" Hui Hua quoted 'Meet the Robinsons'.

"NO! The point is we have to find some way to give them the time of their lives, and to give Tom and Ally one perfect date." Tiffany said.

"I don't know, we aren't exactly matchmakers extraordinaire." Dixon told her.

"Look, Jake's my angel of light and Sky's one of my best friends. I want to do this for them." Tiffany told the gang, who smirked.

"No problem." Danny said.

"What are you guys talking about?" Tom asked, coming up to his friends. They all looked at him with unnaturally innocent smiles.

"Tom, Ally, come on. We got something to show you." Dixon and Hui Hua said as they pushed them out of the restaurant.

"JAKE, SKY! COME ON COME ON!" Cubby exclaimed as he chased them out as well. Everyone else smiled after seeing how well the distraction worked.

"Fine, I'll go. Just let me do something up in the suite." Tom said once again clutching his aching head.

Dixon and Hui Hua looked at each other before saying "Okay, but we're coming with you."

"Fine. Ally, you can come too." Tom said as they headed for the elevator in the hotel.

They reached Tom/Danny's room (A/N not like that you pervs!) a few minutes later. Ally, Dixon, and Hui Hua watched as Tom bolted for his suitcase and pulled out a bottle of red pills. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a soda before taking a swing of the drink and popping two of the pills in his mouth.

"They're prescription pills to help get rid of a hangover. Unfortunately, alcoholism runs in my family on my mother's side." Tom explained

Ally snickered before saying "Is your mom Irish?"

Tom blushed before muttering "Yes."

Ally, Dixon and Hui Hua burst out laughing that Tom's mom fit the Irish stereotype much to Tom's embarrassment.

"It's not funny. My mom was able to quit drinking and stay sober for 23 years before she picked up a bottle again. She's been more in control of her drinking, but it's still a big problem to my family." Tom said trying to get them to stop laughing.

"Wow dude, your family's messed up" Dixon said

"Don't remind me." Tom muttered, sorrow edging its way into his voice.

"Aww, Tom...you know you're gonna have your friends around you no matter what, right?" Ally asked him, he turned to her.

"Ally, they're my family. I have to deal with them no matter what. It's just so painful to live with someone that you find annoying." Tom told them.

"Tell me about it." Dixon said, glaring at Cubby

"And besides," Tom said grimly, "friends can't replace family, no matter how messed up or insane that family is."

"Tom, your family isn't insane. They're just 'out there'." Ally cooed, trying to make him feel better about his dysfunctional family.

"Now what was it you two wanted to show us?" Tom asked, now staring at Dixon and Hui Hua

"Right this way." said Hui Hua as she led the way.

They were all lead out of the hotel and to the beach, they looked around confused. Tom opened his mouth to talk to Dixon and Hui Hua, who just shushed them.

"What are we doing here?" Jake whispered to Sky, who just shrugged. Ali's head popped up from the water in the distance, watching her friends.

"Alright guys, go." Ali whispered to the water, and then it started to move out towards the sea.

"Hey - look!" Ally exclaimed as she watched two dolphins catapult out of the water, followed by two killer whales. The four animals put on an amazing show for those who were watching.

"Awesome..." Tom muttered.

"And that's only the beginning." Hui Hua grinned.

"You mean there's more of this torture?" Tom said sarcastically. Ali glared at Tom before realizing his potent sarcasm.

"You know, one of these days, that sarcasm will get you killed." Ally whispered into Tom's ear.

Tom just chuckled and whispered back "What do you think I'm trying to do?" with sarcasm again evident in his voice. Ally just rolled her eyes. 'This isn't my idea of a great date, but whatever' Tom thought just as he realized they were distracting him. 'Oh well. They must have a good reason.'


End file.
